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STREETS 


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The    Engineering  NeWs  Pub.   Co. 

148 


NEW  YORK 

THE   ENGINEERING  NEWS  PUBLISHING   COMPANY 

LONDON:  ARCHIBALD  CONSTABLE  &  Co.,  LTD. 

1911 


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WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT 


OF 


A  STUDY  IN  TOWN  PLANNING 


Bt 

CHAKLES  MULFOKD  EOBI^SOK 

AUTHOR  OF 

The  Improvement  of  Towns  and  Cities 
Modern  Civic  Art  and  The  Call  of  the  City 


NEW  YORK 

THE   ENGINEERING   NEWS   PUBLISHING   COMPANY 

LONDON:  ARCHIBALD  CONSTABLE  &  Co.,  LTD. 

1911 


Copyright,  1911 

BY 

CHARLES    MULFORD    ROBINSON 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hill,  London,  1911 


THE   SCIENT.riC    PRESS 
BROOKLYN.    N.   Y 


TO   THE 

Department  of  ICanfiscape   Architecture 


Chairman,    $amts  £tttr?,is      raiT 

UNDER  -WHOSE  DIRECTION  ARE  GIVEN  THE  HARVARD  COURSES  IN  CITY  PLANNING 
THIS  THESIS 

is 

^fferttonateht  pebttateb 

Breadth    of    interest,    readiness    of   sympathy   with    others'    efforts, 

comradeship  and  the  inspiration  of  enthusiasm   and  con- 

secration   are    factors    that    there,    as    ever 

count  for  more  than  does  mere 

richness  of  material 


"The  art  of  laying-out  either  the  nucleus  of  a  new  city 
or  the  extension  of  an  existing  one  to  the  best  advantage  of 
its  population,  as  regards  economy,  beauty  and  health,  both 
now  and  in  time  to  come,  is,  for  want  of  a  better  term, 
called  Town  Planning." 

Opening    words  from    the    Preface    of    the    "Transactions," 
Planning  Conference,  London,  1910. 


THE  author  would  be  glad  if  he  could  make 
acknowledgement  for  all  the  assistance  and  sugges- 
tions that  have  rendered  this  volume  possible.  The 
full  enumeration  of  their  sources  would  almost,  how- 
ever, make  a  book  in  itself.  To  some  extent  the  reader, 
in  noting  the  authors  quoted,  will  perceive  where 
thanks  are  especially  due. 

But  a  great  deal  is  the  result  of  observation,  some 
thirty  towns  and  cities  from  the  Atlantic  Coast  to  the 
mid-Pacific  having  requested  the  writer,  in  recent 
years,  to  study  and  diagnose  their  special  needs  as 
regards  the  city  plan.  A  second  special  source  of 
inspiration  has  been  Harvard  University,  for  an  invi- 
tation, accepted  a  year  ago,  to  be  the  university's 
guest  for  the  prosecution  of  post-graduate  research 
work  in  city  planning,  gave  an  opportunity  for  more 
thorough  reading  than  the  distractions  of  professional 
life  normally  afford.  The  third  source  was  a  recent 
European  trip  which  differed  from  its  predecessors  in 
that,  immediately  following  the  course  of  reading,  it 
made  its  special  objective  an  international  town  plan- 
ning conference  in  London. 

At  that  conference  the  general  thesis  of  the  volume 
was  offered.  It  was  the  kind  reception  accorded  to  it 
there,  by  specialists,  that  encouraged  its  presentation 
in  extended  form  to  that  larger  public  with  whom,  in 
the  last  analysis,  rests  the  responsibility  for  actual 
town  planning. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION    1 

CHAPTER   I. 

MAIN  DIVISIONS  OF  A  STREET  SYSTEM 6 

Significance  and  Extent  of  the  Sub-Division  Movement — 
The  Widening  Distance  between  Work  and  Home — Influence 
of  This  on  the  Street  Plan — The  Modern  Demand  for  Differ- 
ent Kinds  of  Streets — Major  Streets  for  Traffic  and  Minor 
Streets  for  Quiet  Residence — The  Location  and  Character  of 
Minor  Streets. 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  STANDARDIZING  OF  STREETS 13 

Standardization  Not  as  Wise  as  it  Seems — Typical  Ex- 
amples— Standardizing  of  Plan.  Width  and  Development — 
Consideration  of  Excuses  for  the  System — Its  Cost  and 
Illogicalness. 

CHAPTER  III. 

STREET  WIDTH  AND  HOUSING 28 

Results  of  Standardizing  Streets  but  not  People — Statis- 
tical Evidence  of  the  Cost — Wide  Streets  and  Tenements — 
WTide  Streets  and  Rear  Buildings — Other  Objections — The 
Duty  of  the  City. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

STREET  WIDTH  AND  LAND  VALUES 391 

Considering  Owners  not  less  than  Tenants — Proper  Adjust- 
ment to  Function  Tends  to  Make  Values  Stable,  to  Develop 
New  Tracts,  to  Increase  Demand,  to  Decrease  Maintenance 
Cost — Street  Widths  and  Land  Restrictions. 

CHAPTER  V. 

MAIN   TRAFFIC   STREETS 45 

Relation  to  Transportation — Historical  Development  and 
Modern  Requirements — Need  of  Planning  in  a  Large  Way — 
Locating  Main  Streets — The  Curve  and  the  Straight  Line — 
Need  of  Width — Apportionment  of  Space — Economic  Aspects 
— Avoiding  Uniformity— The  Business  District — Alleys, 
Waterfront  and  Building  Height. 

vii 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  VI. 

PAGE 

How  TO  LESSEN  THE  COST  OF  WIDE  STREETS 70 

The  Necessity  for  Doing  This — Excess  Condemnation — 
Establishment  of  a  Building  Line — Use  of  Arcades — Division 
of  Taxes — Taking  Easements — The  Zone  System — Municipal 
Ownership  of  Land. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

PROVISION  OF  CENTRAL  CONTROL 84 

Permanency  of  Control  a  Factor — The  Law  in  Saxony — 
England's  Town-Planning  Act — American  Commissions — 
American  City  Planners. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PLATTING  OF  MINOR  RESIDENCE  STREETS  IN  HIGH  CLASS  DISTRICTS     96 

Avenues  Not  Included  Here — Each  Minor  Street  a  Problem 
by  Itself — Location  of  the  Street  as  Determined  by  Advan- 
tageous Platting,  by  Topography,  by  Climatic  Conditions,  by 
Aesthetic  Opportunities — The  Curving  Street — Left  Over 
Spaces — Some  Dangers. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MINOR  STREETS 110 

A  Need  of  Freedom — What  Traffic  Requires — The  Conven- 
tional Sidewalk  Space  and  Margin — Taking  Liberties  with 
Sidewalks — A  Footpath  for  a  Street — The  Semi-Private 
"  Place  "  and  the  Residence  Square. 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 131 

Human  Welfare  as  a  First  Consideration — Demand  for  a 
Small  Lot-Unit — Likenesses  and  Differences  between  Minor 
Streets  for  Humble  Homes  and  those  for  High  Class  Villas 
— Increased  Dependence  on  Main  Thoroughfares — The  Value 
of  a  Garden — Combating  the  Tenement — The  Factory  in  the 
Suburb — The  Mixture  of  Classes. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAN  THE  STREETS 154 

What  These  Reservations  Are — Intimacy  of  their  Connec- 
tion with  the  Streets — Desirability  of  Coincident  Planning — 
Proportion  of  Total  Area  to  be  Put  into  Parks — The  Street 
and  the  Open  Space — The  Playground — Public  Parks — 
Parked  Streets — Sites  for  Public  Buildings — The  Town  Plan- 
ning Test. 

CONCLUSION   178 

APPENDIX    ~]^'.> 

I  NDEX    li'.~ 

viii 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Plan  of  Brussels  in  1572 Frontispiece 

PAGE 

An  unsympathetic  plan  of  a  domestic  street 21 

Taxing  the  present  for  an  improbable  future 25 

The  cost  of  rigidity  of  plan 25 

Streets  adjusted  to  contours.     (Diagrams) •    26 

A  German  type  of  handsome  street 33 

Sacrificing  comfort  and  beauty  for  width 35 

Extra  space  for  unused  road  leaves  little  space  for  much  used 

garden     37 

Street  typical  of  a  mediaeval  town 47 

Highways  leading  into  Boston.     (Diagram), 51 

An  intersection  of  important  streets.     (Diagram) 55 

far  tracks  on  a  central  reserved  strip — tree- bordered  and  sodded     60 

Xiven's  plan  for  a  great  highway  for  London 63 

Two-level  street  on  the  waterfront 68 

Zone  plan  of  Cologne  and  its  suburbs  in  1901 81 

Two-level  street  in  a  residence  section 100 

Fitting  the  plan  to  the  contours.     (Plan) 105 

A  quiet  residence  section  near  a  big  city 108 

New  type  of  minor  street  in  high  class  section 110 

Street  with  a  turn,  at  the  end 112 

A  grass  border  planted  with  shrubs 115 

A  contrast  in  walk  location 116 

I  low  a  private  driveway  breaks  the  level  of  the  walk,  when  walk 

is  next  to  curb 116 

A  walk  at  higher  level  than  the  road 117 

A  sidewalk  on  one  side  only 118 

Where  there  is  little  walking  one  sidewalk  may  be  enough 119 

The  economy  of  an  elevated  sidewalk 120 

Sidewalk  informality.      (Diagram) 121 

How  footpath  entrances  might  be  marked.     (Three  views) 124 

Economy  of  the  footpath  if  the  ground  slope  abruptly.      (Two 

views) 125 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Entrance  to  Vandeventer  Place,  St.  Louis 128 

Allotment  gardens  in  the  middle  of  a  block.     (Diagram) 141 

Warding  off  the  tenement 143 

The  tenement  at  its  best 144 

Attractive  and  inexpensive  streets  of  the  Krupp  Colonies  near 

Essen.     (Two  views) 148 

Attractive  and  inexpensive  streets  of  the  Krupp  Colonies  near 

Essen.      (Two   views) 149 

Where  a  street  would  be  expensive  but  a  park  would  be  cheap . . .  156 

A  development  that  was  economical  as  well  as  beautiful 156 

A  hillside  site  widened  into  an  outlook  point 159 

Locating  the  playground  inside  the  block.     (Diagram) 164 

An  arrangement  for  community  tennis  courts.     (Diagram) 168 

An  inside  park  in  high  class  residence  property 169 

Center  parking  planted  with  flowering  trees 172 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT 


OF 


STREETS 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  benefits  which  are  sought  by  a  scientific  re- 
planning  of  cities  and  towns  are,  broadly,  threefold. 
They  lie  in  a  bettering  of  those  circulatory  problems 
that  have  been  created  by  indirect  streets  and  con- 
gested traffic ;  in  the  improvement  of  social  conditions 
in  many  directions;  and  in  increasing  the  visible 
beauty  and  splendor  of  cities.  Gains  are  anticipated 
in  economy  and  efficiency,  in  comfort,  and  in  looks. 
As  to  the  planning  of  new  towns,  or  the  new  parts  of 
existing  towns,  if  this  be  done  in  a  scientific  way  the 
proverbial  ounce  of  prevention  may  be  reasonably  ex- 
pected to  be  worth  at  least  the  pound  of  cure. 

In  either  of  these  cases,  the  advantages  which  ac- 
crue to  the  community  as  a  whole  accrue  also  to  the 
individuals  who  make  up  the  community — whether 
owners  or  tenants.  In  the  present  state  of  society, 
land  division  projects  which  might  do  injury  to  land- 
owners and  home  builders  are  not  worth  considering, 
even  though  they  should  be,  conceivably,  for  the  good 
of  a  non-property  owning  class.  To  be  practical,  town 
planning  projects  must  be  reasonable  and  considerate 
of  all  proper  interests. 

1 


THE    WIDTH    AXD   ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

Alike  on  the  part  of  the  public  and  on  that  of 
individuals,  and  therefore  healthfully,  a  demand  has 
grown  up  for- town  remodelling  and  for  more  thought 
of  the  future  in  tract  development.  It  has  grown  out 
of  a  wish  to  forestall,  or  the  need  to  correct,  the  con- 
dition which  has  been  heretofore  created  by  large  and 
rapid  municipal  growth.  Typical  conditions  have  been 
those  of  streets  filled  with  a  traffic  which  they  were 
unable  to  carry  with  safety  and  speed;  have  been  the 
housing  of  the  poor  amid  surroundings  injurious  to 
moral,  physical  and  civic  health;  have  been  the  loss 
of  play  space,  for  children  and  for  adults ;  have  been 
the  reduction  of  industrial  and  commercial  efficiency, 
the  inconvenient  location  and  the  undignified  crowd- 
ing of  public  buildings ;  the  excessive  cost  of  corrective 
as  compared  with  preventive  measures. 

The  replanning  of  cities  and  towns,  or  their  careful 
planning  at  the  start,  and  the  comprehensive  platting 
of  their  outlying  sections  are  concerned  with  all  such 
conditions.  For  these  plans  have  to  do  with  the  urban 
framework,  as  this  is  made  up  of  streets  and  avenues 
and  open  spaces  of  one  sort  and  another.  They  may 
be  said  to  treat  of  the  skeleton  of  the  city,  of  that 
which  gives  to  the  city  its  constructional  form;  and 
they  are  expected  to  be  determined  by  the  needs  not 
of  districts  only  but  of  the  community  as  a  whole. 
These  plans  have  little  to  do  with  details,  such  as  bill- 
boards, pavements,  etc.,  but  are  intimately  concerned, 
as  has  been  already  suggested,  with  the  conve- 
nience of  the  streets  for  traffic  purposes,  with  the 
proper  location,  and  if  possible  the  grouping,  of  public 
buildings,  with  the  development  of  neighborhood  cen- 
ters which  shall  become  a  moral  and  social  force,  with 
the  location  of  parks  and  their  accessibility  to  those 
who  most  need  them,  with  economical  housing,  and 

•2 


INTRODUCTION 

with  the  attractive  development  of  residential  and 
suburban  tracts. 

It  is  with  the  latter  phase  that  this  book  will  at- 
tempt particularly  to  deal.  The  subject  may  seem 
restricted,  but  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  city  has  no 
financial  investment  so  large  as  that  represented  in 
its  streets — usually  twenty-five  to  forty  per  cent  of 
the  whole  land  area — and  that  no  items  in  its  expenses 
reach  a  larger  total  than  those  for  the  construction 
and  maintenance  of  streets.  Still  more  important,  the 
streets'  location  and  development  touch  closely  the 
life  of  every  person  who  lives  in  town.  In  fact,  "the 
most  important  features  of  city  planning, ' '  it  has  been 
well  said,*  "are  not  the  public  buildings,  not  the 
railroad  approaches,  not  even  the  parks  and  play- 
grounds. They  are  the  location  of  streets,  the  estab- 
lishment of  block  lines,  the  subdivision  of  property 
into  lots,  the  regulations  of  buildings,  and  the  housing 
of  the  people." 

In  discussing  the  platting  of  streets,  it  has  seemed 
necessary  to  plead  for  less  standardization,  for  wider 
main  streets,  and  for  the  narrowing  of  those  which 
have  little  traffic  value.  The  latter  point  of  the  dis- 
cussion has  had  in  the  past  so  little  popular  con- 
sideration, that  the  author  has  thought  best  to  focus 
particular  attention  upon  it.  No  claim  is  made  to 
originality  in  this  thought,  or  that  the  arguments  will 
possess  novelty  to  those  who  most  have  studied  town 
and  city  planning.  But  an  attempt  has  been  made, 
while  presenting  the  matter  simply,  to  look  at  the  prob- 
lem broadly  and  honestly.  This  has  rendered  it  impos- 
sible to  consider  minor  streets  alone.  In  the  outer 
rim  of  cities  the  minor  street  is  dependent  for  its  life 
upon  transportation  facilities,  and  these  must  be  of- 

*John  Nolen  in  "Madison:    A  Model  City." 

3 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARBANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

fered  by  main  highways.  Thus,  in  order  to  take  the 
broad  view,  much  must  be  considered  besides  the  prob- 
lem of  a  street  by  itself.  One  street,  though  every 
perfection  were  given  to  it,  would  bear  only  such  re- 
lation to  the  whole  street  system  as  would  a  patch  on 
an  old  fashioned  and  outgrown  garment. 

It  might  be  said,  indeed,  that  the  average  modern 
«ity  has  in  its  street  system  a  garment  so  restricting 
it  as  to  need  entire  replanning  and  recutting  to  make 
it  comfortably  serviceable  and  really  up-to-date. 
Until  this  fact  is  recognized,  all  civic  improvement 
work  can  be  hardly  more  than  an  attempt  to  adapt  an 
ancient  and  outworn  city  form  to  new  and  tremen- 
dously insistent  municipal  requirements.  Most  signifi- 
cant is  such  a  reflection. 

Without,  then,  magnifying  or  unduly  emphasizing 
the  current  widespread  town  planning  movement,  the 
book  is  presented  with  the  hope  that  it  may  be  of  value 
in  the  course  of  normal  and  ordinary  city  develop- 
ment. Hence  the  purpose  of  the  volume  is  not  to  give 
the  history  of  town  planning,  not  to  contrast  the  ro- 
mantic and  classical  schools  of  it,  but  simply  to  help 
in  a  practical  way  regarding  one  important  phase  of 
it — a  phase  which  concerns  every  owner  of  real  estate 
and  every  citizen.  And  since  the  main  arguments 
represent  not  the  faith  and  theory  of  one  man  only, 
but  the  belief  of  the  students  of  town  and  city  planning 
in  all  nations  which  to-day  are  considering  the  subject, 
the  book's  message  is  given  with  abounding  confidence. 

Finally,  though  effort  has  been  made  to  render 
proffered  criticism  constructive,  there  is  realization 
that  rules  to  govern  generally  town  development  are 
most  difficult  to  enunciate.  In  recent  years,  the  cm  >r 
of  city  building  has  been  too  much  adherence  to  fixed 
rules.  In  cities  of  different,  purposes — as  industrial, 

4 


INTRODUCTION 

commercial,  capital,  or  residential — different  groups 
of  considerations  deserve  most  deference;  in  cities  of 
like  purpose,  which  are  not  on  plains,  no  one  street 
pattern  should  be  generally  applied.  To  impose  on  a 
site,  without  regard  to  its  topography,  any  precon- 
ceived system,  is  to  be  false  to  the  true  principle  of 
design.  So  the  book  is  presented  with  no  illusion  as 
to  its  providing  a  panacea  for  every  anatomical  ill 
that  towns  are  heir  to.  But  perhaps — to  stretch  the 
patent  medicine  simile  a  little  further — it  may  have  an 
invigorating  tonic  value.  There  are  some  things  as  to 
street  platting  which  it  were  better  for  the  city,  better 
for  the  tract  developer,  and  better  for  the  lot  buyer  or 
tenant  to  have  more  clearly  understood.  The  author 
has  endeavored  to  state  these.  With  that  purpose, 
some  of  the  first,  and  the  second,  third  and  fourth 
chapters  are  devoted  to  pointing  out  defects  in  the 
usual  present  practice  of  street  design  and  the  advan- 
tages of  a  closer  adjustment  to  function.  Thereafter 
are  the  constructive  suggestions. 


CHAPTER  I 

MAIN  DIVISIONS  OF  A  STKEET  SYSTEM 

THE  development  of  suburban  acreage  property, 
by  its  division  into  lots  and  the  cutting  of  streets,  has 
proceeded  on  an  enormous  scale  in  recent  years.  It 
has  been  undertaken  by  individuals,  corporations  and 
associations.  If  thousands  have  marketed  property  in 
this  way,  the  purchasers  of  it  are  to  be  counted  by  the 
tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands.  Since  the  ultimate 
object  is  the  setting  of  a  family  home,  the  degree  of 
wisdom  with  which  the  work  is  done  is  a  social  and 
economic  question  of  the  first  importance. 

As  cities  expand  to  include  these  outlying  areas, 
the  layout  given  to  the  tracts  becomes  also  a  matter  of 
great  civic  concern.  Its  effect  upon  the  community  as 
a  whole — both  in  facilitating  or  hampering  the  further 
extension  of  area,  and  in  the  transaction  of  business  or 
the  pursuit  of  pleasure — tends  to  become  paramount 
even  to  its  effect  on  the  locality  platted. 

Further,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  this  development 
of  suburban  tracts  is  due  to  the  operation  of  eco- 
nomic and  social  forces  of  such  character  as  to  render 
inevitable  a  continuance  of  the  movement,  in  one  form 
or  another.  The  cutting  up  of  outlying  acreage  is  not, 
that  is  to  say,  a  fad,  nor  simply  a  momentarily  popular 
financial  craze,  of  which  the  bubble  may  be  expected  to 
burst.  It  results  not  only  from  the  growth  of  cities,  a 
growth  which  must  continually  push  their  streets 

6 


MAIN    DIVISIONS    OF    A    STREET    SYSTEM 

further  out  and  open  new  ones ;  but  it  is  the  response 
to  a  new  social  demand. 

This  demand  began  with  the  removal  of  the 
necessity  that  all  workmen  live  near  their  work.  The 
term  is  relative,  of  course;  but  even  so  considered, 
"near"  has  been  stretched  by  cheap,  frequent,  con- 
tinuous and  rapid  transportation  until  to-day  com- 
paratively few  are  under  that  necessity.  Those  few 
are  the  laborers  who  are  most  poorly  paid — as  the 
push  cart  vendors  and  the  sweat  shop  workers — or 
those  whose  hours  of  labor  are  longest,*  or  whose 
labor  calls  them  to  work  at  awkward  and  irregular 
times.  Others  who  live  in  town  do  so  from  choice  or 
from  inertia. 

The  professional  man  nowadays  is  extremely  likely 
to  have  an  office  in  the  city  and  a  home  in  the  out- 
skirts ;  merchant  and  banker  and  broker  may  sleep  in 
the  country  though  their  labor  is  in  town;  in  multi- 
tudes the  more  progressive  clerks  and  salesmen  oc- 
cupy the  detached  and  semi-detached  dwellings  that 
make  up  the  outer  residence  zones  of  cities;  in  the 
early  hours  of  the  working  day  and  again  at  its  closing 

*  Some  significant  statistics  on  this  point  were  given  by  Prof.  Henry 
E.  Seager,  of  Columbia  University,  New  York,  in  a  paper  presented  at 
the  Congestion  Conference  held  in  New  York  City,  March,  1908.  He 
pointed  out  that  the  dispersion  of  the  homes  of  employees  from  the  place 
where  they  are  employed  is  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  length  of  their 
work-day.  This  he  illustrated  by  a  study  of  the  printing  industry, 
representing  an  eight-hour  trade,  the  leather  industry,  representing  a 
nine-hour  trade,  and  the  food  industries,  representing  a  ten-hour  trade. 
A  study  of  the  employees  in  a  number  of  establishments  in  these  trades, 
all  below  Forty-second  Street  on  Manhattan  Island,  indicated  that  the 
proportion  of  employees  living  in  Manhattan,  in  the  short-houred  printing 
trade  was  31%,  in  the  longer -houred  leather  trade  42%,  and  in  the  still 
longer -houred  food  industries  74%.  The  showing  that  in  the  printing 
trade,  with  its  comparatively  good  pay  and  short  hours,  more  than  two- 
thirds  of  the  workers  did  not  have  their  homes  on  Manhattan  Island  at 
all,  is  striking. 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

hours,  rapid  transit  Hues  are  crowded  with  lunch-box 
and  dinner-pail  bearers — with  the  great  army  of  the 
employed,  journeying  to  and  from  their  work — riding, 
because  they  live  too  far  away  to  wralk.  This  is  the 
triumph  of  the  modern  city.  It  has  come  with  the 
quickening  and  cheapening  of  urban  mechanical  trans- 
portation. It  is  the  relief  which  has  been  developed 
as  a  blessed  offset  to  the  increasing  pressure  of  mod- 
ern industrial  and  commercial  activity.  At  last  it  has 
become  possible  for  the  citizen  to  get  away  from  work, 
ard  in  multitudes  he  gets  away.  To  be  sure,  there  still 
are  thousands  of  men  who  go  to  bed  over  their  shops, 
or  who  sleep  within  call  of  the  factory  whistle;  but 
other  thousands,  in  a  throng  that  grows  with  astonish- 
ing rapidity,  considering  how  radical  the  domestic 
upheaval  involved,  have  now  a  daily  change  of  scene 
and  air,  and  at  nightfall  enter  into  a  peace  which 
industry  and  commerce  may  not  molest. 

There  is  in  this  a  social  readjustment  of  incalcu- 
lable value.  But  as  yet  it  has  expressed  itself  very 
inadequately  on  the  city  plan.  We  have  simply  pro- 
longed our  old  time  streets,  in  our  haste  projecting 
upon  the  fair  landscape,  broken  though  it  be  by  hill 
and  dale  and  water  course,  the  humdrum  street  pat- 
tern of  the  town.  And  even  that  pattern  should  not  in 
all  cases  have  been  humdrum.  Within  the  confines  of 
the  original  city,  before  the  days  of  its  expansion,  the 
topography  has  not  been  always  flat  and  featureless ; 
nor,  in  spite  of  platting,  have  all  streets  been  traffic 
highways. 

Nevertheless,  streets  have  generally  been  classified 
simply  as  busy  and  not  busy.  Or,  at  best,  into  three 
classes — an  intermediate  class,  that  might  be  expected 
to  carry  a  moderate  traffic,  and  proportioned  accord- 
ingly, having  been  designated  as  "secondary 

8 


MAIN    DIVISIONS    OF    A    STREET    SYSTEM 

streets."  Differences  have  thus  been  based,  not  on 
the  kind  of  service  but  on  its  quantity.  Accord- 
ingly, standardization  attempts  have  been  unsatisfac- 
tory. It  is  difficult  to  standardize  the  degree  of  a 
street's  service,  and  in  the  fact  we  have  seen  one  grade 
of  streets  soon  merging  into  another.  Then  we  dis- 
cover that  we  have  set  up  arbitrary  standards,  and 
that,  if  there  be  nothing  to  fix  and  hold  the  character 
of  a  street,  it  tends  to  change.  The  traffic  changes  with 
it;  the  old  standardization  breaks  down;  the  original 
adjustment  in  structure  and  proportion  becomes  un- 
satisfactory. 

Taking,  now,  the  social  point  of  view,  and  observ- 
ing the  change  which  has  recently  come  over  city  life, 
we  may  note  that  in  no  one  feature  does  a  modern  city 
differ  more  radically  from  its  prototype  than  in  the 
daily  ebb  and  flow,  inward  and  outward,  of  its  tide  of 
travel.  That  circumstance  makes  upon  the  street  plan 
a  demand  for  a  strictly  two-fold  service — the  one  for 
traffic  and  the  one  for  quiet  residence — with  an  ur- 
gency unknown  before.  It  offers  the  opportunity,  and 
even  the  obligation,  to  create  two  distinct  kinds  of 
streets  that  shall  serve  in  the  best  possible  way  these 
diverse  needs. 

Such  a  classification  is  plainly  better  than  the 
superficial  consideration  of  streets  as  simply  of  first 
and  second,  and  possibly  third,  traffic  value.  It  draws 
a  clearer  line,  for  in  recognizing  two  different  kinds  of 
functions,  it  becomes  possible  to  differentiate  the 
street  development  so  markedly  that  one  use  cannot 
merge  into  another.  It  may  be  noted,  however,  that 
since  most  retail  business  is  dependent  upon  the  ex- 
istence of  a  stream  of  travel,  those  streets  which  serve 
for  the  latter 's  conveyance  include  so-called  business 
streets.  On  the  other  hand,  it  should  be  added  that  all 

9 


THE    WIDTH   AND   ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

main  highways  are  not  business  streets.  A  leading 
traffic  thoroughfare  may  give  access  to  a  freight  house 
or  to  a  park  as  certainly  as  to  a  department  store. 

Streets  of  each  group  are,  therefore,  variously  de- 
veloped. Yet  all  traffic  streets  have  this  much  in  com- 
mon :  They  exist  primarily  to  carry  traffic  and  may  be 
said  to  constitute  the  framework  of  the  city.  Their 
planning,  as  a  class,  should  be  prior  to  that  of  the 
minor  streets;  they  should  be,  as  we  shall  see  in 
another  chapter,  direct,  broad  and  of  easy  gradient, 
desirably  also  in  many  cases  long  and  radial.  Their 
function,  as  regards  the  travel  they  accommodate,  is 
to  shorten  time  between  foci — commonly  between  the 
center  of  the  city  and  its  outer  zones.  They  are  de- 
signed to  do  this  by  facilitating  rapidity  of  movement 
and  shortening  distance. 

The  streets  that  offer  to  residents  refuge  from 
these  tidal  traffic  streams  are  the  minor  residential 
thoroughfares.  The  phrase  which  describes  them  is 
itself  a  definition.  It  excludes  all  main  highways,  all 
avenues  and  boulevards,  and  for  the  purposes  of  this 
discussion  it  shall  be  held  to  exclude  all  streets  which 
carry  a  through  travel  that  so  much  as  even  equals  the 
traffic  originating  and  terminating  within  the  street 
itself.  If  we  accept  this  as  our  understanding  of  the 
term  we  shall  exclude  also,  from  consideration  here, 
all  streets  that  carry  car  lines  or  that  are  routes  con- 
venient for  general  teaming,  driving,  or  motoring. 

It  is  clear  that  these  will  be  streets  that  are  not 
inviting  to  traffic.  This  may  be  either  because  of  the 
special  development  which  has  been  given  to  other 
thoroughfares,  or  because  they  themselves  are  char- 
acterized by  some  permanent  physical  handicap,  such 
as  indirection,  heavy  grades,  or  a  break  in  continuity. 
Their  traffic  function,  as  regards  the  street  plan  of  the 

10 


MAIN    DIVISIONS   OF   A   STREET   SYSTEM 

city  and  its  suburbs,  is  only  to  harbor  the  little  eddies 
left  at  the  side  by  the  mighty  streams  of  travel  which 
flow  through  main  thoroughfares.  Because  they  servo 
this  purpose,  they'  must  be  generally  in  close  connec- 
tion with  major  streets  and  traffic  highways.  If  we 
fancy  an  ideal  city  plan  in  which  various  arterial 
streets  radiate  from  a  common  business  center,  we 
shall  expect  to  find  the  minor  streets  located  between 
the  radii. 

In  considering  these  minor  residential  streets,  two 
peculiarities  at  once  become  clear.  First,  as  they  are 
not  limited  to  any  one  residential  section  of  the  city, 
they  do  not  exclusively  belong  to  any  one  class  of 
citizens.  Necessarily,  therefore,  they,  like  the  traffic 
thoroughfares,  vary  in  character.  There  is,  for  in- 
stance, the  shack-lined  alley  off  a  third  class  business 
street,  and  the  private  "Place"  off  a  fashionable 
avenue,  and  each  may  be  classed  under  the  title  "  minor 
residence  street."  Second,  and  as  a  consequence  of 
the  foregoing  consideration,  it  is  obvious  that  they  are 
very  numerous  and  of  much  importance  in  the  city's 
life.  As  far  as  numbers  go,  it  usually  is  possible  to 
class  more  streets  under  this  term  than  under  any 
other.  An  imposing  proportion  of  the  total  number 
of  the  citzens  dwells  upon  them,  and  the  lives  of  these 
people  are  intimately  affected  by  the  character  of  the 
streets.  The  streets  are  minor,  considered  only  in 
themselves  and  their  street  relations ;  they  are  not 
minor  as  regards  their  social  value  or  their  economic 
influence  upon  rents.  Further,  because  their  develop- 
ment is  or  should  be  determined  so  largely  by  purely 
local  factors,  it  should  be  possible  to  connect  them 
more  nearly  with  rentals  than  other  streets  can  be  thus 
connected.  When  one  deals  with  minor  residential 
streets,  one  deals  most  closely  with  the  homes  of  the 
citizens.  - 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

That  these  streets  are  distinct  from  traffic  thorough- 
fares, however,  cannot  be  emphasized  too  strongly. 
The  avenues,  the  boulevards,  the  arterial  highways 
and  main  roads  may  as  often  be  too  narrow,  under 
present  systems  of  planning,  as  these  minor  streets 
are  prone  to  be  too  broad.  A  street  plan  problem,  when 
reduced  to  its  simplest  terms,  is  duplex. 

Simple  distinctions  of  width,  however,  do  not  solve 
the  problem.  Retail  business,  which  it  is  so  natural 
to  associate  with  traffic  streets,  abhors  a  vacuum.  For 
this  reason,  when  a  town  is  small  it  sometimes  happens 
that  of  two  parallel  streets,  one  made  wide  for  busi- 
ness and  the  next  one  narrow  for  residence,  business 
takes  the  narrower — e.g.,  Market  and  Chestnut  Streets 
in  the  early  days  of  Philadelphia.  This  may  be  due 
to  excessiveness,  partly  in  the  width  and  partly  in  the 
prices  for  property,  on  the  wide  street.  For  that 
reason,  the  accurate  location  of  these  streets,  that  they 
may  be  the  most  convenient  for  traffic ;  and  their  devel- 
opment, in  such  manner  that  they  may  be  the  most 
inviting  to  it,  are  matters  of  exceeding  importance. 


12 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  STANDARDIZING  OF  STREETS 

IT  has  appeared  that  there  are  at  least  two  very 
distinct  kinds  of  streets,  if  we  accept  the  simple  func- 
tional classification ;  and  that  those  which  should  serve 
one  purpose  are  as  likely  to  be  too  narrow  as  those 
which  should  serve  the  other  are  likely  to  be  too  broad. 
Setting  the  common  excessive  width  of  strictly  resi- 
dence streets  over  against  the  common  excessive  nar- 
rowness of  main  traffic  thoroughfares,  it  will  be  no 
surprise  to  find,  as  we  do,  similar  measurements  for 
immense  numbers  of  streets — irrespective  of  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  needs  they  have  to  meet.  It  becomes 
evident  that  there  has  been  effort  to  discover  a  mean, 
and  that  except  for  the  few  streets  that  have  some 
special  significance  this  selected  mean  has  been  stand- 
ardized. Standards,  as  we  have  seen,  may  be  for  three 
grades  of  street  and  yet  may  adapt  them  to  only  a 
single  function. 

While  standardization  of  the  width  and  arrange- 
ment of  streets  is  a  convenient,  labor-saving  method 
of  regulating  the  subdivision  of  real  estate,  it  cannot 
be  held  to  show  much  foresight.  If  the  action  deserves 
credit  for  implying  recognition  of  a  need  of  regula- 
tion, it  destroys  this  claim  to  credit  by  imposing  a 
regulation  that  is  arbitrary,  unrelated  to  facts  and 
hence  in  many  cases  illogical.  To  require  that  the 
gridiron  street  plan,  which  is  possibly  characteristic 

13 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

of  the  nucleus  of  the  town,  shall  *  *  spread  like  an  erup- 
tion over  hill  and  valley,  regardless  of  gradient,  site 
or  of  strategic  lines  of  communication,  oblivious  of 
monotony  and  blind  to  topographical  opportunity," 
may  be  to  blast  the  chance  of  suburban  appropriate- 
ness and  beauty.  Again,  to  impose  on  the  new  streets 
themselves  requirements  which  unfit  them  for  the  best 
performance  of  their  function  can  represent  no  advance 
over  leaving  them  unregulated,  since  under  the  latter 
condition  an  intelligent  person  might  now  and  then  fit 
them  for  their  purpose.  And  to  say  that  no  streets 
shall  have  less  than  a  certain  minimum  width  of  road- 
way, setting  that  minimum  at  a  figure  appropriate 
only  for  streets  of  a  considerable  traffic  value;  or  to 
say  that  every  street  shall  be  intersected  by  a  cross 
.street  at  definitely  named  intervals,  is  to  impose  re- 
strictions of  exactly  these  kinds. 

Most  persons  know  from  personal  experience  how 
much  these  things  are  done,  but  it  may  be  well  to  illus- 
trate by  a  couple  of  concrete  examples. 

In  the  city  of  Washington,  which  we  like  to  think 
of  as  so  admirably  planned,  there  is  a  law  setting  fifty 
feet  as  the  minimum  width  for  any  strictly  minor 
street  which  may  be  opened  in  a  block;  while  requir- 
ing that  all  new  highways  be  not  less  than  ninety  feet 
in  width.  The  severity,  however,  of  the  latter  rule  is 
mercifully  ameliorated  by  the  provision  that  if  the 
dedicating  parties  will  establish  a  building  restriction 
line,  in  agreement  with  the  required  width,  the  street 
may  be  recorded  as  having  a  width  of  sixty  feet.  Even 
with  this  modification,  however,  it  is  interesting  to 
contrast  the  requirements  made  of  suburban  Washing- 
ton streets — of  nearly  all  such  streets,  be  it  noted— 

*  An  admirably  descriptive  phrase  used  by  Arthur  A.  Shurtleff,  in 
Landscape  Architecture,  January,  1911. 

14 


THE    STANDARDIZING    OF    STREETS 

with  the  dimensions  of  thoroughfares  which  are 
famous  for  the  amount  of  traffic  they  carry,  the  justi- 
fication of  the  demand  being  its  forehanded  provision 
for  possible  future  traffic.  Sixty  feet  is  as  wide  as 
Cheapside,  London,  and  approximates  the  available 
width  of  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  before  the  recent 
setting  back  of  stoops.  Ninety  feet  is  much  wider  than 
Piccadilly,  Queen  Victoria  Street  or  Oxford  Street,  and 
is  wider  than  Regent  Street  Quadrant,  in  London.  It 
is  only  eight  feet  less  than  the  Parisian  boulevards  or 
the  Avenue  de  1'Opera,  and  is  wider  than  are  the  busi- 
est parts  of  Broadway,  New  York.  It  were  trite  to 
term  such  provisions,  made  regardless  of  all  local  con- 
ditions, extravagant. 

In  England  an  act  requires  that  no  street  longer 
than  150  yards  can  be  constructed  without  a  cross 
street — not  even  where  houses  are  few  and  may  be 
expected  to  be  always  far  apart.  But  in  New  York 
City,  with  its  enormous  traffic,  many  of  the  blocks  are 
twice  as  long  as  that;  in  Montreal  the  average  block 
is  750  feet  on  two  of  its  sides ;  in  Washington,  streets 
are  frequently  800  feet  apart.  Yet  the  law  requires 
that  if  one  is  laying  out  a  tract  on  wThich  to  house  the 
poor  at  the  lowest  possible  rent  in  Liverpool,  one  must 
increase  the  cost  of  the  operation  by  building  a  street 
at  intervals  of  every  450  feet.* 

These  illustrations  of  standardization  seem  ex- 
treme, but  that  is  only  because  wrorse  examples  are  not 

*  The  question  is  not  wholly  one  of  traffic  accommodation.  Streets 
not  only  carry  traffic,  but  their  location  determines  block  plans,  and 
block  plans  determine  lot  lengths.  The  shallow  lot,  secured  only  by 
frequency  of  parallel  streets,  is  exceedingly  desirable  where  the  poor  are 
to  be  housed — as  will  appear  further  on.  But  a  needless  frequency  of 
cross  streets,  or  the  frequency  of  parallel  streets  that  through  standardi- 
zation are  compelled  to  have  a  useless  width,  is  thoroughly  bad.  That 
is  the  point  as  regards  the  present  discussion. 

15 


THE    WIDTH    AND   ARRANGEMENT    OF   STREETS 

quoted.  Liverpool  and  Washington  are  certainly  not 
the  cities  to  be  sought  for  particularly  unintelligent 
enactments  on  the  subject  of  street  platting.  Indeed, 
it  is  not  the  least  significant  fact  in  all  this  standardi- 
zation that  there  are  to  be  found  a  great  variety  of 
standards  in  different  localities,  even  when  economic, 
social  and  topographical  conditions  seem  very  similar. 
In  other  words,  there  is  no  pretence  that  a  true  stand- 
ard has  been  found.  The  dimensions  selected  seem  to 
have  been  determined  upon  in  each  place  by  accident, 
more  or  less,  and  to  have  persisted  largely  through 
inertia. 

We  shall  consider  elsewhere  the  cost  involved  in 
these  attempts  to  find  a  street  mean  that  can  serve 
diverse  ends.  It  is  sufficient  here  to  note  simply  the 
failure  of  the  effort  as  respects  even  the  two  main  di- 
visions of  streets — a  failure  so  complete  that  it  would 
be  ridiculous  if  it  did  not  exact  sacrifices,  social  as  well 
as  economic,  which  make  it  pathetic.  A  quotation  from 
J.  S.  Nettlef old's  "  Practical  Housing  "  offers,  in  a 
terse  and  concrete  English  example,  a  hint  of  the 
nature  of  the  sacrifice  involved:  "  Our  present  regu- 
lations," he  says,  "  stipulate  that  every  new  street 
must  be  of  a  certain  minimum  width,  largely  regard- 
less of  what  traffic  is  likely  to  go  along  it.  The  sides 
of  the  streets  must  be  curbed  and  channelled  and  the 
footpaths  paved  with  flagstones  in  a  most  expensive 
manner.  This  entails  a  very  heavy  expenditure  in 
estate  development,  which,  on  the  average,  is  about 
equal  to  the  value  of  the  land  that  is  going  to  be  de- 
veloped. The  result  of  this  heavy  expenditure  is  that 
the  landowner,  in  order  to  get  a  return  on  the  capital 
invested,  crowds  just  as  many  houses  per  acre  on  to 
his  land  as  the  by-laws  will  allow.  That  is,  the  model 
by-laws  allow  fifty-six  houses  to  the  acre,  whereas, 


THE    STANDARDIZING    OF    STREETS 

from  the  hygienic  point  of  view,  there  should  not  be 
more  than  twelve.  At  present,  if  a  progressive  land- 
owner expresses  his  willingness  to  restrict  the  number 
of  houses  per  acre  to  twelve,  instead  of  fifty-six  as 
allowed  by  the  by-laws — provided  the  local  authority 
will  meet  him  in  the  cost  of  estate  development  by  al- 
lowing him  to  make  the  roadways  as  wide  as,  and  no 
wider  than,  is  required  for  the  traffic  that  will  pass 
over  them,  although  maintaining  the  present  distances 
between  the  houses — he  is  told  at  once  that  the  by- 
laws are  prohibitive." 

It  should  be  said,  with  regard  to  this,  that  a  pro- 
vision of  the  recently  enacted  town-planning  law  par- 
tially corrects  this  condition.  It  now  is  possible,  on 
occasion,  for  English  local  authorities,  in  order  "to 
secure  proper  sanitary  conditions,  amenity  and  con- 
venience," to  relax  or  modify  requirements,  breaking 
away  from  the  tradition  that  all  streets  should  be  of 
like  width  and  like  strength.  But  this  is  such  a  new 
enactment  that  as  yet  the  conditions  which  render  the 
permission  serviceable  have  been  rarely  complied 
with.  Consequently,  Mr.  Nettlef  old's  statement  has 
lost  little  of  its  force.  In  any  case,  it  stands  as  a 
serious  rebuke  to  the  argument  for  standardization. 
So,  also,  does  the  town-planning  act's  suggestion  that, 
for  purposes  of  separate  treatment,  roads  may  be  rec- 
ognized as  (a)  main  arterial  roads,  (b)  secondary 
roads,  and  (c)  residential  roads — that  is,  as  traffic 
roads,  of  greater  or  less  degree,  or  as  residential. 

In  the  main,  three  excuses  are  advanced  in  behalf 
of  the  standardization  of  streets,  in  the  innumerable 
cities  and  towns  where  it  is  practiced.  One  is  the 
method's  convenience.  It  simplifies  the  initial  prob- 
lems of  land  sub-division,  the  surveying  and  record- 
ing, and  it  renders  street  extension  almost  automatic. 

17 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

The  objection  to  this  is  that  it  means  the  purchase  of 
present  ease  at  the  cost  of  future  trouble. 

A  second  "  justification  "  is,  as  we  have  said,  that 
the  method  represents  an  effort  to  be  forehanded  in 
providing  for  future  traffic.  As  to  this,  the  situation 
is  as  follows:  We  have  found  in  dearly  bought  ex- 
perience that  the  streets  in  the  cities  of  the  past  are 
too  small  for  the  traffic  of  the  great  towns  of  to-day, 
with  their  larger  populations  and  vastly  increased 
transportation  needs.  We  have  determined  that  the 
error  shall  not  be  repeated  in  the  building  of  new 
towns  or  in  additions  to  the  old.  As  no  walls  of  ma- 
sonry now  encompass  our  cities  to  cramp  the  streets, 
we  say  to  ourselves  there  is  all  outdoors  to  grow  in. 
Let  us,  therefore,  plan  on  a  big  scale,  making  our 
streets  generously  broad.  Accordingly,  we  have 
raised  the  percentage  of  area  devoted  to  streets  from 
the  ten  per  cent  which  was  frequent  in  mediaeval 
cities  (in  Havana,  Cuba,  the  amount  still  is  less  than 
ten  per  cent  of  the  whole)  to  the  twenty-five  and  even 
forty  per  cent  which  is  usual  in  the  built  up  portions 
of  modern  cities.  It  was  necessary,  no  doubt,  to  raise 
the  proportion,  and  perhaps  as  much  as  we  have  raised 
it  on  the  average.  The  fault  lies  only  in  the  uniform, 
unthinking  way  in  which  the  work  has  been  done,  in 
forgetfulness  that  walls  of  time  and  walls  of  cost  still 
engirdle  city-workers,  and,  like  the  old  walls  of 
masonry,  exact  toll  in  higher  rents  for  all  improvident 
use  of  land. 

We  need  to  recognize  that  there  are  some  streets 
which  never  can  be  traffic  highways,  however  broad 
they  be — as  streets  that  climb  steep  hills  or  terminate 
quickly,  or  skirt  lines  of  bluffs.*  We  need,  also,  to 

*  An  illustration,  which  is  interesting  because  typical,  may  be  cited 
from  Los  Angeles,  Cal.  There  a  law  specifies  that  no  public  street 

18 


THE    STANDARDIZING    OF    STREETS 

realize  that,  at  worst,  Broadways,  Fleet  Streets  and 
Cheapsides  are  not  born  full-grown  overnight.  In 
ninety-nine  cases  out  of  the  hundred  it  can  be  fore- 
seen absolutely  that  given  residence  thoroughfares 
cannot  become  business  streets  within  any  reasonable 
period.  Is  it  not  absurd  to  charge  the  community 
through  all  the  intervening  years  with  the  annual  cost 
of  a  hundred  needlessly  wide  streets  because  one  of 
them  might  possibly,  centuries  hence,  have  a  great  deal 
larger  traffic  than  to-day?  And  as  to  the  one  case,  of 
which  the  future  might  not  be -accurately  foreseen  so 
long  ahead,  the  growing  traffic,  the  trend  of  business 
and  of  building,  or  the  undertaking  of  a  public  work 
that  is  to  revolutionize  the  community,  would  give  the 
warning  in  time  for  it.  If  we  are  going  to  be  so 
thoughtful  in  our  city  building,  let  us  be  thoughtful  of 
fact  and  not  of  theories. 

Let  us  observe,  among  other  things,  that  the  pres- 
ent tendency  to  develop  districts,  homogeneous  in 
themselves  but  quite  distinct  from  other  districts, 
tends  powerfully  to  the  fixture  of  not  only  real  estate 
values  but  of  traffic  values ;  and  then  that  a  street  plat- 
ting adapted  to  the  district  in  which  it  is,  will  further 
discourage  marked  changes  in  its  character.  Is  there 
any  reason,  indeed,  why  in  the  planning  of  cities  the 
areas  that  are  to  serve  special  purposes — as  those  of 

shall  be  less  than  forty  feet  wide.  Becently  owners  of  a  certain  tract  in 
the  hills,  called  Beverly  Glen,  offered  to  dedicate  a  sufficiently  wide  street 
through  the  canyon  in  the  middle  of  the  tract.  But  this  left  house  lots 
on  the  hillsides  which  it  was  illegal  to  offer  for  sale  until  public  high- 
ways had  lieen  set  aside  to  reach  them,  on  plats  accepted  by  the  Board 
of  Supervisors  and  made  matter  of  record.  Such,  however,  was  the 
character  of  the  hillsides  that  it  was  out  of  the  question  to  lay  out  pub- 
lie  highways  which  the  Board  could  legally  accept.  As  this  is  written, 
there  is  pending  the  query  whether  the  unreasonable  standardizing  law 
can  be  evaded  by  accepting  "public  trails"! — Condensed  from  a  news 
note  in  Municipal  Journal  and  Engineer,  Feb.  8,  1911. 

19 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

commerce,  manufacturing  and  residence — should  not 
be  planned  especially,  even  as  we  plan  the  different 
rooms  of  the  house  ?  The  area — be  it  kitchen  or  entry 
in  the  house;  business  street  or  residence  crescent  in 
the  city — is  selected  for  its  particular  purpose  because 
of  appropriateness  of  character  and  location.  In 
either  instance,  having  been  chosen  for  a  given  pur- 
pose and  designed  to  fit  it,  the  area's  resulting  inad- 
equacy for  other  ends  must  tend  to  keep  it  in  the  use 
for  which  it  was  planned. 

It  may  be  said,  of  course,  that  there  is  danger  that 
we  will  not  plan  with  sufficient  liberality.  If  the  use 
of  a  certain  area  outgrow  the  space  allotted  to  it,  ex- 
pansion may  mean  an  absorption  of  area  which  was 
intended  for  other  utilization.  But  speaking  generally, 
this  danger  will  at  worst  threaten  only  the  margins 
of  a  district  which,  in  all  the  rest,  and  larger,  portion 
of  its  territory  will  be  designed  to  meet  in  the  best 
way  possible  the  needs  peculiar  to  it.  Nor  will  this 
peril  of  the  margins  be  truly  menacing.  In  forehanded 
planning  for  special  uses  we  naturally  would  be  lib- 
eral. 

The  third  excuse  for  giving  to  streets  a  width  in 
excess  of  the  traffic  needs  is  that  such  action  is  wise 
because  in  residence  districts,  especially  among  hum- 
ble homes,  the  width  is  useful  for  something  else  than 
mere  traffic — as  air  and  light  and  grass  and  flowers. 
But  this  is  a  costly  way  to  provide  these  amenities. 
Would  an  architect  justify  the  expense  of  putting  ad- 
ditional staircases  in  a  house  because  banister-rails 
are  nice  for  boys  to  slide  on  1  If  there  be  front  gardens, 
through  requirement  that  houses  be  set  back  from  the 
lines  of  narrow  streets,  we  shall  gain  not  only  light, 
air,  and  vegetation,  but  social  and  personal  advan- 
tages besides.  Should  there  be  felt  the  need  for  traffic 

20 


THE    STANDARDIZING    OF    STREETS 


a 
o   <y 

•"  a 


21 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

forehandedness,  the  community  could  secure  an  ease- 
ment over  this  front  garden  space;  the  desired  amen- 
ities being  meanwhile  attributes  of  the  home  rather 
than  of  the  street,  and  better  so ;  while  as  to  provision 
for  shade  trees,  if  the  street  be  narrow  the  trees  are 
better  placed  inside  the  walk-line  than  outside  of  it. 

There  is  another  kind  of  standardization  than 
simply  that  of  width.  Not  only,  in  the  eagerness  for 
methodically  constructed  cities,  are  there  regulations 
fixing  the  width  at  so  excessive  a  figure  as  to  invite 
uniformity  in  all  save  exceptional  cases,  but  there  are 
enactments  standardizing  the  development  of  streets. 
Thus,  in  some  cities  of  the  United  States  it  is  decreed 
that,  irrespective  of  the  width  of  streets,  three-fifths 
of  the  breadth  shall  always  be  put  into  roadway,  and 
one-fifth  on  each  side  into  sidewalk.  In  European 
cities,  where  the  proportions  of  the  street  are  likely 
to  be  less  generous  than  in  the  Western  States  of 
America,  the  division  is  often  into  thirds. 

An  example  of  standardization  that  is  suggestive 
because  it  shows  a  little  more  than  the  usual  thought, 
even  suggesting  a  wish  to  create  an  intelligent  adapt- 
ability, is  to  found  in  the  Borough  of  the  Bronx,  New 
York.  Here  a  general  ordinance  dealing  with  the 
arrangement  of  streets  requires  that  all  streets  60  feet 
wide  shall  have  a  30-foot  roadway;  all  streets  80  feet 
wide  a  42-foot  roadway ;  streets  100  feet  wide  a  60-foot 
roadway,  etc.  But  this  region  is  one  of  delightfully 
varied  topography,  illustrating  within  its  considerable 
area  almost  every  kind  of  suburban  development; 
while  the  ordinance  shows  no  regard  for  any  charac- 
teristic of  the  street  save  that  of  width. 

In  the  same  city  of  New  York  we  may  find  innu- 
merable illustrations  of  the  difference  in  needs  of  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  streets,  even  when  their  width  is  the 

22 


THE    STANDARDIZING    OF    STREETS 

same.  We  shall  find  business  sections  and  residence 
sections  with  traffic  requirements  totally  unlike.  We 
shall  find  the  business  section  subdivided  many  times, 
as  into  wholesale  and  retail  districts,  and  these  again 
subdivided,  as  into  the  "leather  district,"  the  "finan- 
cial center,"  the  "automobile  row,"  etc.  The  resi- 
dence sections  in  their  turn  are  subdivided  into  high 
class  and  middle  class  and  workingmen's  districts. 
The  tenement  region  makes  a  vast  third  section. 
Surely  sidewalk  and  pavement  requirements  are  not 
the  same  on  all  the  streets  of  like  width  in  these  vari- 
ous districts.  For  example,  one  may  find  on  a  street 
in  the  wholesale  district  fifty  great  trucks  and  drays 
to  a  single  pedestrian.  On  the  tenement-lined  streets 
of  the  congested  East  Side,  or  among  tall  office  build- 
ings, of  which  a  single  one  contains  the  population  of 
a  good-sized  village,  there  may  be  five  hundred  pedes- 
trians to  a  single  vehicle.  Here  the  streams  of  people 
on  the  sidewalks  flow  into  the  "roadway"  and  some- 
times choke  it  to  such  extent  that  one  could  hardly 
drive  there  if  he  would.  But  up  on  the  avenue,  where 
the  roadway  is  uniform  in  width  with  that  between  the 
tenements  and  the  skyscrapers,  the  river  of  traffic  is 
mainly  composed  of  motor  cars  and  carriages,  and 
such  a  mighty  torrent  is  it  that  the  hunted  pedestrian 
can  cross  it  only  as  the  children  of  Israel  crossed  the 
Kc'd  Sea,  a  Moses  in  uniform  holding  back  the  water 
on  either  side.  In  yet  another  part  of  the  city,  the 
authorities  found  it  advisable  some  months  ago  to  close 
some  streets  to  vehicular  traffic  between  certain  hours, 
because  inconsequent  childhood  had  appropriated  the 
space  for  a  needed  playground. 

Great  as  are  these  contrasts,  the  problem  is  reduced 
in  this  statement  to  its  simplest  terms.  No  account 
is  taken  of  the  difference  between  streets  that  have 

23 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

and  have  not  car-tracks,  though  in  other  .respects  they 
be  alike ;  no  account  of  grades,  and  length,  of  direction 
with  respect  to  the  tidal  flow  of  traffic,  of  terminals, 
cross-streams,  and  other  matters  which  affect  the  effi- 
ciency of  streets.  And  even  all  these  conditions  would 
not  illustrate  all  the  folly  of  a  standardizing  system. 
There  are  other  streets  in  the  city,  scores  and  hun- 
dreds, on  which,  though  they  are  equal  in  width  with 
thoroughfares  as  crowded  as  those  described,  there 
will  be,  perhaps,  two  vehicles  and  half-a-dozen  pedes- 
trians in  the  hour.  Here  the  pathos  lies  in  the  waste 
involved. 

This  waste,  it  may  be  well  to  observe,  is  not  always 
or  necessarily  in  the  excessive  use  of  land.  When  a 
highway  is  too  narrow,  and  this  condition  is  as  famil- 
iar as  is  too  great  breadth  of  street,  there  is  congestion 
that  results  in  a  waste  of  time  and  waste  of  energy 
w7hich  are  as  clearly  reducible  to  terms  of  money  as  is 
waste  of  land. 

Lastly,  there  is  the  standardization  of  direction. 
It  requires  that  adherence  to  a  fixed  plan,  which  is 
careless  of  the  cost  of  cutting  and  filling,  which  is 
regardless  of  impossible  grades,  inconsiderate  of  his- 
toric interest,  is  blind  to  beauty.  It  would  keep  all 
streets  to  the  Plan,  indifferent  to  the  purpose  they 
have  to  serve.  Even  on  a  virgin  plain  this  is  not  justi- 
fiable. Take  the  one  matter  of  orientation.  We  shall 
find  it  desirable  that  residence  streets  have  such  direc- 
tion that  there  will  be  no  day  of  the  year  when  the  sun 
may  not  reach  some  windows  of  the  houses.  But  on 
business  streets  this  is  far  less  important — shops, 
indeed,  preferring  the  shady  side. 

But  let  us  return  to  the  minor  residence  streets. 
We  have  found  the  failure  of  street  standardization  to 
meet  street  needs,  and  the  consequent  extravagance  of 

24 


TAXING  THE  PRESENT  FOR  AN  IMPROBABLE  FUTURE 

It  is  unlikely  that  this  necessarily  minor  street  of  a  new  real  estate 
development,  now  stopped  by  a  railroad  and  residence,  will  be  ever 
extended  beyond  its  present  length;  or  if  extended  become  a  high- 
way. But  it  is  given  a  roadway  wide  enough  to  accommodate  the 
vehicular  traffic  of  a  metropolitan  street. 


By  courtesy  of  the  Citu  ftirfrs  Ass'n.,  Philadelphia 

THE  COST  OF  RIGIDITY  CF  PLAN 

The  extension  of  a  Philadelphia  street.     In  this  case  the  destruction 
was  not  necessary. 

25 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 


that  method  of  platting,  to  be  largely  due  to  the  fact 
that  a  city's  streets  and  sections  are  not  all  alike  in 
their  requirements.  How  could  they  be,  since  not  alike 


By  courtesy  if  JIetit>i><>lit<in   Inii>i-<»-f>in'iit.*  Cnnimixxion  [fiofton] 

STREETS  ADJUSTED  TO  CONTOURS 

The  street  development  of  Aspinwall  Hill,  Brookline,  Mass.,  as  shown  in 
the  lower  diagrams,  offers  delightful  contrast  to  that  on  the  hill  at 
"Wollaston,  shown  above. 


in  their  conditions !  Some  may  claim  that  it  would  be 
better  for  a  town  if  it  were  not  subdivided  into  dis- 
tricts of  distinct  character — at  least  in  its  residence 
section.  They  may  say,  therefore,  that  a  method  of 

26 


THE    STANDARDIZING    OF    STREETS 

street  platting  which  fails  to  take  notice  of  a  tendency 
toward  segregation,  and  which  certainly  does  nothing 
to  fix  or  emphasize  such  separation,  is  a  good  thing. 
However  much  the  argument  may  appeal  to  a  repub- 
lican, the  real  condition  is  so  universal  as  to  seem  to 
compel  recognition.  The  separation  of  home  sections 
into  districts  of  various  character  is  as  evident  in 
Chicago  as  it  is  in  London.  It  is  a  result  of  the  opera- 
tion of  social  laws — nay,  of  laws  embracing  more  than 
human  society.  It  is  the  attraction  of  like  for  like. 
Further,  it  is  the  application  to  cities  of  that  law  of 
evolution  described  as  the  specializing  or  differentia- 
tion of  function.  Whether  we  like  it  or  not,  we  cannot 
in  fairness  fail  to  note  its  operation  in  cities,  not  only 
now,  but  in  the  past — this  is  interestingly  shown  by 
the  names  of  ancient  streets — or  fail  to  realize  that  the 
process  must  continue  and  can  hardly  grow  less 
marked. 

Jane  Addams,  than  whom  no  social  worker  has 
broader  outlook,  says  in  one  of  her  books :  ' '  The  city 
grows  more  complex,  more  varied  in  resources  and 
more  highly  organized,  and  is,  therefore,  in  greater 
need  of  a  more  diffused  and  local  anatomy. ' '  She  says 
this  simply  and  incidentally,  to  prove  another  point, 
as  if  everyone  admitted  it.  Yet  the  statement  puts 
tersely  the  great  lesson  which  we  have  yet  to  learn  in 
the  platting  of  streets. 


27 


CHAPTER  III 

STREET  WIDTH  AND  HOUSING 

IT  early  appeared  that  streets  which  are  properly 
of  residential  character,  and  of-  which  traffic  makes 
only  minor  requirements,  are  not  confined  to  any 
single  quarter  of  the  city,  and  that  the  persons  who 
dwell  upon  them  are  not  of  one  class  alone.  The  occu- 
pants of  the  houses  on  any  particular  one  of  these 
streets,  or  any  particular  unit  of  street,  are  likely 
indeed  to  have  approximately  the  same  general  posi- 
tion in  life,  but  between  two  streets,  or  between  two 
well  defined  divisions  of  a  street,  there  may  be  the 
diameter  of  the  whole  social  structure.  It  was  asserted 
also  that  the  relation  existing  between  the  develop- 
ment accorded  to  these  streets  and  the  lives  of  the 
people  living  upon  them  is  exceptionally  close  and 
intimate. 

If,  then,  the  development  of  minor  residence  streets 
be  standardized,  so  that  they  all  tend  to  uniformity, 
and  the  lives  of  the  residents  are  not,  and  cannot  be, 
reduced  to  a  fixed  social  mean,  there  must  result  a 
series  of  misfits,  of  which  the  outcome  can  be  only 
prodigality,  social  inconvenience,  and  a  general  mal- 
adjustment to  real  conditions.  This  will  affect  the 
different  classes  of  residents  with  different  degrees  of 
relative  seriousness,  but  none  will  escape  its  influence. 
The  easiest  measure  of  the  cost  of  such  maladjustment 
is  offered  by  the  effect  upon  rents,  and  that  effect 

28 


STREET    WIDTH    AND    HOUSING 

carries  suggestion  of  the  numerous  far-reaching  ten- 
dencies which  develop  from  it. 

Alderman  W.  Thompson,  chairman  of  the  National 
Housing  Reform  Council  of  England,  in  his  valuable 
compilation,  ' '  Housing  Up  to  Date, ' '  states  that  under 
modern  conditions  of  subdivision  the  cost  of  roads, 
sewers,  etc.,  reaches  in  some  cases  as  high  as  £9  per 
room  or  £45  per  cottage,  and  that  it  averages  £9  per 
cottage.  This  calculation  is  based  on  statistics  cover- 
ing thousands  of  cottage  dwellings,  and  since  the  word 
''cottage"  means  in  this  connection  houses  built  in  con- 
tinuous rows — that  is,  dwellings  that  occupy  with  their 
grounds  a  minimum  street  frontage — it  reveals  the 
effect  on  rents  for  even  the  cheapest  homes.  As  to 
the  more  costly  villa  type  of  dwellings,  the  same 
authority  notes  that  the  English  by-law  requiring  a 
paved  or  macadamized  road  surface  of  about  40  feet, 
has  made  the  cost  of  thoroughfares,  in  newly  devel- 
oped estates  on  the  outskirts  of  towns,  from  £200  to 
£500  per  acre — "or  more  than  the  land  itself." 

John  S.  Nettlef  old,  in  his  ' '  Slum  Reform  and  Town 
Planning,"  calculates  that  the  interest  on  the  expen- 
diture for  street  work  "comes  to  one  shilling  or  more 
per  week  on  a  house  rented  for  six  shillings,  if  the 
number  of  houses  is  restricted  to  fifteen  per  acre." 
One  must  read  that  statement  twice  .to  get  its  full  sig- 
nificance, and  must  realize  that  the  suggested  restric- 
tion is  not  a  low  one.  At  Bournville,  the  houses  are 
restricted  to  eleven  to  the  acre,  and  at  Hampstead 
Garden  Suburb  they  average  less  than  eight,  with 
twelve  the  maximum.  Twelve  to  the  acre  has  been 
made  the  standard  in  English  housing  exhibitions. 
Yet  at  fifteen  to  the  acre,  one-sixth  or  more  is  added 
to  the  weekly  rent  by  the  English  by-law  requirement 
of  forty-foot  streets. 

29 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

Raymond  Unwin  puts  the  unreasonableness  of  the 
requirement  in  this  striking  way:  "A  mansion  such 
as  Chatsworth  or  Blenheim  will  be  adequately  served 
by  a  simple  carriage  drive  from  13  to  20  feet  wide. 
The  population  of  such  a  building  will  be  larger  than 
that  of  a  row  or  group  of  cottages,  and  the  amount  of 
wheel  traffic  to  and  from  it  many  times  as  great;  yet 
for  the  cottage  road  asphalt  or  concrete  paved  foot- 
paths, granite  curbs  and  channel,  and  granite  macad- 
amized surface,  the  whole  from  40  to  50  feet  wide,  and 
costing,  with  the  sewers,  etc.,  from  £5  to  £8  a  lineal 
yard,  are  required  by  the  local  authority,  under  our 
existing  by-law. ' ' 

The  burden  of  all  this  cost,  to  which  is  to  be  further 
added  the  value  of  the  land  thus  withdrawn  from  pro- 
ductive use,  is  borne  by  the  occupants  of  the  district, 
whether  they  be  tenants  or  owners.* 

This  was  brought  out  with  somewhat  more  detail 
at  the  Seventh  Congres  International  des  Habitations 
a  bon  Marche,  when  a  report  named  the  following  as 


*  More  recently,  Mr.  Unwin  has  worked  out,  by  means  of  tables 
giving  the  cost  of  estate  development  per  house  for  various  numbers  of 
houses  per  acre,  an  interesting  calculation  as  to  the  profit  in  making 
certain  concessions  with  respect  to  roads.  He  imagines,  for  instance,  a 
tract  of  twenty  acres,  valued  at  £300  an  acre,  with  ten  houses  to  the 
acre,  and  assumes  the  cost  of  fifty-foot  roads  to  be  £7,  10s  per  lineal 
yard,  the  cost  of  thirty-six-foot  roads  to  be  £5,  10s  per  lineal  yard, 
and  the  cost  of  twenty-foot  roads  to  be  £3  per  lineal  yard.  He  finds 
that  if,  instead  of  constructing  the  ordinary  by-law  roads,  the  houses 
being  so  few,  there  were  made  one  fifty-foot  road  around  the  twenty 
acres,  a  thirty-six-foot  residential  road  across  the  area,  and  then,  instead 
of  another  thirty-six  foot  road  through  the  length  of  the  p'at,  two  small 
drives  of  twenty  feet  each,  the  cost  per  house  for  land  and  roads  would 
be  reduced  from  £71  to  £62  6s,  assuming  the  land-cost  as  remaining 
fixed  in  either  case.  The  concession,  that  is  to  say,  makes  the  same 
difference  to  the  landlord  as  if  he  had  been  allowed  to  put  one  hundred 
and  forty  more  houses  on  the  twenty  acres! 

30 


STREET    WIDTH    AND    HOUSING 

the  factors  that  determine  rent,  as  far  as  the  land- 
lord's side  of  the  question  is  concerned: 

1.  Interest  on  Capital  outlay, 

(a)  For  site. 

(b)  For  roads,  sewers,  etc. 

(c)  For  building. 

2.  Maintenance  expenses, 

(a)  For    repairs — "a    fairly    constant    factor, 
averaging    about    one-tenth    of    the    gross 
rent." 

(b)  For  management  and  sundries,  "a  fairly 
constant     factor,     averaging     about     one 
twenty-fifth  of  the  gross  rent." 

(c)  For  taxes  and  insurance. 

Of  these  factors  it  will  be  observed  that  1,  (a)  and 
(fr),  and  2,  (c),  are  dependent  very  largely  on  the  street 
platting;  and  since  2,  (a)  and  (b),  are  described  as 
"fairly  constant,"  it  may  be  said  that  much  of  the 
variation  in  rents  in  any  section  is  determined,  from 
the  landlord's  standpoint,  by  the  cost  of  the  building 
and  these  three  community-decreed  factors.  As  a 
tenant  in  choosing  his  house,  theoretically  chooses  the 
best  he  can  afford,  it  can  be  argued  that  the  rent  fac- 
tors which  are  imposed  by  the  community  in  its 
official  capacity,  without  his  permission,  really  go  far 
toward  fixing  the  scale  of  his  living.  And  this  is 
clearly  true  even  after  admitting  that  the  normal  tax 
rate  has  of  itself,  as  economists  now  quite  generally 
claim,  little  effect  on  rents.*  The  importance  of  the 

*  It  is  quite  conceivable  that  the  method  of  taxation  may  affect 
rents  more  directly  thau  does  the  rate  of  taxation.  Indeed,  the  ad- 
herents of  the  single  tax  system,  who,  removing  the  tax  from  improve- 

31 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

subject  thus  becomes  plain.  If  the  present  familiar 
method  of  standardization  is  unduly  extravagant,  it. 
should  not  be  permitted  to  persist  simply  through 
inertia  and  because  it  saves  trouble  in  surveying  and 
thinking. 

It  is  significant,  as  was  noted,  that  the  new  act  in 
England  recognizes  the  condition,  by  permitting  Eng- 
lish local  authorities,  in  order  "to  secure  proper  sani- 
tary conditions,  amenity,  and  convenience, ' '  to  relax  or 
modify  former  requirements,  breaking  away  from  the 
tradition  that  all  streets  should  be  of  like  width  and 
like  strength.  Furthermore,  the  act  itself  recognizes, 
as  we  have  seen,  three  distinct  grades  of  roads — main 
arterial,  secondary  and  residential. 

Further  interesting  testimony  is  given  by  the  Ger- 
mans, who,  in  the  earlier  days  of  deliberate  town 
planning,  were  wont  to  construct  very  broad  streets 
when  developing  outlying  areas.  As  long  ago,  how- 
ever, as  1892  the  minister  of  finance  said,  in  present- 
ing to  the  Prussian  House  of  Representatives  a  bill 
relative  to  town  planning :  * '  Everywhere  equally  wide 
streets  have  been  made,  whether  they  are  in  a  district 
of  heavy  traffic,  or  whether  they  are  in  the  less  busy 
parts  of  the  town  in  which,  naturally,  workmen  seek 
a  home.  ...  In  preparing  a  rational  town  building 

ments,  would  put  it  only  on  the  land,  assert  that  such  a  method  must 
tend,  by  encouraging  building,  to  reduce  rents.  With  the  whole  tax 
placed  on  the  land,  it  does  not  pay  to  allow  valuable  land — which  is  to 
say  land  immediately  needed  for  use — to  remain  out  of  use.  From  a 
town  planning  standpoint,  it  is  interesting  to  note,  now,  the  further 
claim  that  the  city  would  consequently  develop  in  a  more  orderly  and 
consistent  manner.  Large  areas  of  property,  allowed  to  lie  vacant 
because  of  low  taxes,  will  no  longer  separate  its  outer  ring  into  scat- 
tered communities — a  course  that  adds  much  to  the  cost  of  policing, 
lighting,  sewering,  and  paving.  Again,  those  who  believe  in  an 
' '  unearned  increment ' '  tax  on  land,  a  system  in  operation  in  Germany,, 
make  a  similar  claim  for  their  method. 

32 


STREET    WIDTH    AND    HOUSING 


plan  our  task  will  be  to  avoid  these  faults  and  to  take 
as  our  aim  that  narrow  as  well  as  wide  streets  shall 
be  laid  out,  which  will  cost  less  to  make." 


A  GERMAN  TYPE  OF  HANDSOME  STREET 

High  tenement  block  dwellings  may  be  a  direct  result  of  wide  roads; 
and  a  handsome  street  that  is  lined  with  them  is  undeserving  of 
admiration  from  the  standpoint  of  social  welfare. 

More  recently,  in  the  discussion  of  the  few  pages 
from  this  volume  which  were  read  at  the  London  Town 
Planning  Conference  of  1910,  Dr.  Hegemann  of  Berlin 
traced  a  relation  of  cause  and  effect  between  the  wide 
streets  and  the  tenements  with  which  those  streets  are 

33 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

lined  in  the  more  remote  portions  of  the  German  capi- 
tal; while  Thomas  Adams,  of  the  town  planning 
department  of  the  Local  Government  Board,  of  Eng- 
land, testified  that  after  investigating  conditions  in 
Germany  and  Sweden,  he  had  to  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  system  of  high  tenement  block  dwellings  was 
as  much  the  result  of  wide  roads,  as  wide  roads  had 
been  the  result  of  the  tenement  system.  The  one,  he 
said,  was  complementary  to  the  other.  It  was  neces- 
sary that  the  owner  extract  from  each  yard  of  his 
frontage  enough  rent  to  pay  its  share  of  the  costly 
street. 

At  the  same  conference  Dr.  Eberstadt,  in  a  formal 
paper,  told  how  English  visitors  are  driven  about  the 
German  cities  and  shown  imposingly  broad  streets 
"with  a  display  of  asphalt  that  would  empty  half  the 
pits  of  Italy,  and  a  show  of  granite  sufficient  to  level 
down  the  mountains  of  Sweden,  lined  all  along  with 
huge  five  or  six  story  tenement  barracks."  Some 
English  visitors,  he  added,  were  full  of  admiration  for 
this  sort  of  thing;  but  he  testified  that  the  Germans, 
who  have  had  the  opportunity  to  study  it  at  close 
range,  "now  wish  to  do  away  with  it,  as  far  as  may  be 
practicable,  and  to  make  their  aim  the  English  home, 
the  cottage,  the  individual  house." 

That  in  England  and  America  broad  streets,  in 
areas  where  the  poor  are  congregated,  are  not — save 
in  New  York — as  commonly  lined  with  tall  tenement 
barracks  as  in  Germany,  does  not  mean  that  the  same 
economic  law  is  not  in  operation,  or  that  it  operates 
less  unfortunately.  A  social  repugnance  to  the  big 
tenement,  except  as  a  last  necessity,  has  led  to  the 

*  It  is  fair  to  say  that  the  plans  prepared  in  the  recent  (1909) 
Greater  Berlin  city  planning  competition  supplement  very  wide  traffic 
roads,  designed  to  reach  far  into  the  country,  with  narrow  non-traffic 
roads,  intended  for  residence. 

34 


STREF.T    WIDTH    AXD    HOUSING 

construction  of  small  houses  (often  more  crowded  per 
room,  and  less  sanitary,  than  is  the  tenement  block), 
and  then,  to  squeeze  from  the  land  the  higher  rent 
necessitated  by  the  cost  of  frontage  on  an  expensive 
street,  has  induced  the  construction  of  another  house, 
sometimes  a  small  tenement,  on  the  rear  of  the  lot. 
These  houses,  hidden  by  the  structures  in  front,  are 
uncontrolled  by  ordinary  police  inspection  and  unaf- 
fected by  public  observation  and  criticism.  They 
become  such  breeding  places  of  disease  and  vice  that 
at  last,  in  city  after  city,  it  becomes  necessary  to  forbid 
their  erection.  In  Washington,  where  they  were  per- 
haps no  worse  than  in  other  cities,  the  official  Eeport 
of  The  President's  Homes  Commission  described  them 
as  "discreditable  to  the  city  and  injurious  to  the  sani- 
tary interests  of  its  inhabitants." 

Of  great  weight,  also,  should  be  the  reflection — to 
which  there  will  be  other  reference — that  if  there  could 
be  cheaper  minor  streets  for  residence  purposes,  less 
capital  would  be  required  in  the  development  of 
estates,  less  land  tied  up  for  want  of  the  capital,  and 
more  land  thrown  open  for  building. 

Finally,  there  are  other  losses  than  those  which  are 
so  directly  measurable  in  rents.  Mr.  Olmsted  has 
pointed  out  that  "the  tendency  of  the  standardizing 
plan  to  encourage  the  distribution  of  a  certain  amount 
of  through  traffic  upon  nearly  every  street  in  each  dis- 
trict, is  a  distinct  injury  both  to  the  residential  streets, 
where  the  abutters  wish  to  escape  from  the  disturb- 
ance of  traffic,  and  to  the  commercial  streets,  where 
the  abutters  wish  to  have  the  maximum  amount  of 
traffic  pass  their  places  of  business."  In  other  words, 
the  abutters  are  taxed  for  a  system  which  is  to  their 
disadvantage. 

It  was  early  claimed  that  a  wide  street,  furnishing 

35 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 


abundance  of  light  and  air,  would  be  healthier  to  live 
upon.  But  this  does  not  follow  if  the  added  breadth 
is  devoted  only  to  pavement.  Such  a  street  is  provo- 
cative of  much  dust,  which  is  never  healthy;  and  in 
enforcing  intensive  land  occupation,  either  by  covering 
much  of  the  land  with  buildings,  or  by  high  building, 
it  creates  conditions  that  are  by  no  means  hygienic. 


SACRIFICING  COMFORT  AND  BEAUTY  FOR  WIDTH 

This  is  a  street  in  a  residential  suburb  of  New  York.  Its  length  is 
limited  to  two  or  three  blocks  owing  to  natural  conditions,  and 
there  was  no  need  to  sacrifice  beauty  and  comfort  in  order  to  make 
it  as  wide  as  Broadway. 

Briefly  stated,  if  one's  purpose  in  platting  a  wide 
street  is  simply  to  secure  open  space,  one  would  do 
much  better  not  to  provide  that  space  in  its  most  dis- 
agreeable and  unhealthy  form — which  is  the  street. 

Again,  an  excessive  width  on  minor  residence 
streets  robs  the  people  of  the  gardens  they  might 
otherwise  have.  For  example,  in  Bedford  Park,  Lon- 
don, the  first  ''Garden"  suburb  in  England,  the  houses 
on  Gainsborough  Eoad  are  placed  about  five  feet  back 

36 


STREET    WIDTH    AND    HOUSING 

from  the  lot  line.  Hedges  are  used  in  front  of  most 
of  the  dwellings,  and  these  naturally  occupy  so  much 
of  the  space  as  to  render  what  is  left  nearly  worthless 
for  garden  purposes.  In  fact,  generally  it  is  paved. 
But  the  street,  which  is  only  one  block  long  and  there- 
fore not  a  thoroughfare — through  which  indeed  the 
writer's  carriage  was  perhaps  the  only  one  that  passed 
the  day  he  visited  it — is,  as  the  law  directed,  forty 


EXTRA  SPACE  FOB  UNUSED  EOAD  LEAVES  LITTLE  SPACE  FOB  MUCH  USED 
GARDEN — AN  EXAMPLE  FROM  EUBOPE 

feet  wide.  How  much  better  it  would  be  for  the 
occupants  of-  these  houses,  people  who  may  be  sup- 
posed to  have  moved  into  Bedford  Park  in  order  to 
get  garden  space,  if  it  had  been  possible  to  reduce  this 
one  block  street  to  a  width  of  24  feet,  giving  to  the 
people  on  each  side  eight  feet  more  of  garden  in  front 
of  their  homes ! 

That  the  connection  between  street  widths  and 
good  housing  is  of  vital  concern  to  the  city  surely 
requires  no  argument.  We  may  not  think  it  part  of 

37 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT  -  OF    STREETS 

the  town's  business  to  build  decent  dwellings  for  its 
poorer  citizens — though  in  Europe  the  clearance  of 
slum  areas  and  the  rehousing  of  the  people  thus  dis- 
placed has  been  accepted  as  a  very  important,  and  also 
very  costly,  part  of  municipal  activity.  But  at  least 
we  shall  recognize  that  the  city  should  do  what  can  be 
done,  by  the  wise  building  of  streets,  to  encourage 
good  housing.  In  its  purpose  to  make  citizens,  rather 
than  simply  to  add  to  the  total  of  street  area,  it  will 
avoid,  as  far  as  it  may,  whatever  fosters  the  ''ware- 
housing" of  men,  women,  and  children  in  tenement 
barracks;  it  will  discriminate  between  shelter  and 
"home,"  seeing  in  the  latter  more  than  simply  the 
four  walls  of  a  dwelling;  it  will  realize  that  a  policy 
which  provokes  unwholesome  methods  of  living, 
through  compelling  a  too  intensive  use  of  the  land, 
drains  the  municipal  treasury  in  other  and  more  seri- 
ous ways  than  simply  for  the  cost  of  making  and 
maintaining  needlessly  broad  streets.  The  main- 
tenance of  health  and  morality  among  poor  people 
who  have  to  live  on  lots  of  high  priced  frontage,  is  a 
more  expensive  business  than  is  the  maintenance  of 
the  street.  And  failure  here  is  a  more  serious  matter 
to  the  community.  As  Dr.  Charles  W.  Eliot  said  in  a 
recent  address,  l  i  I  am  persuaded  that  the  public  ought 
not  to  limit  itself  to  economic  considerations  in  laying 
out  parks  and  cities.  The  increase  of  human  walfare, 
including  its  happiness,  should  be  the  real  considera- 
tion. ' '  But  wisely  to  consider  that  may  also  be  a  true 
economy. 


38 


CHAPTER  IV 

STEEET  WIDTH  AND  LAND  VALUES 

IT  is  not  always  true  that  the  tenant's  gain  is  the 
owner's  loss.  If  the  narrowing  of  minor  residence 
streets  tends  to  reduce  rents,  it  does  not  follow  that  it 
tends  to  reduce  property  values.  The  latter  are,  for 
the  most  part — as  regards  property  of  this  character 
—the  capitalization  of  net  income,  expected  if  not 
realized.  A  reduction  in  rents  which  results  from 
reduction  in  carrying  charges  may  leave  net  income 
unaffected. 

It  is  to  be  observed  also  that,  in  this  discussion  at 
least,  we  need  be  no  more  concerned  for  the  tenant 
than  for  the  lot  owner.  It  is  not  for  the  city  planner 
to  favor  the  former  at  the  expense  of  the  latter.  In 
fact,  the  ideal  which  is  to  be  kept  in  mind  as  a  desirable 
goal  is  a  condition  in  which  each  citizen  would  own  his 
own  home,  and  the  tenant  become  a  relatively  negli- 
gible quantity  among  a  multitude  of  lot  owners. 

But  if  the  proposed  change  in  methods  of  street 
designing  does  not  affect  property  values  adversely,* 
it  does  not  follow  that  they  are  not  affected.  It 
probably  would  exert  a  marked  influence  upon  real 
estate  in  various  ways. 

In  the  first  place,  it  would  tend  to  create  stability 
in  values.  This  effect  would  be  seen  alike  on  the  main 

*  It  is  significant  that  under  the  English  town-planning  act,  dam- 
ages are  not  allowed  for  a  restriction  in  the  number  of  houses  per  acre. 

39 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

thoroughfares  and  on  the  minor  streets.  The  concen- 
tration of  through  travel  upon  certain  streets  would 
raise  the  value  of  the  frontage  on  those  streets  for 
commercial  purposes;  while  the  assurance  that  inter- 
mediate streets  would  not  be  encroached  upon  for 
business  purposes  would  not  only  settle  definitely  the 
business  character  of  the  chosen  main  highways,  but 
would  have  a  beneficial  effect  upon  property  on  the 
intermediate  streets.  The  reason  for  this  is  the  cer- 
tainty which  would  be  thus  gained  that  they  would  be 
free  from  the  danger  of  invasion  by  elements  incon- 
sistent, and  out  of  harmony,  with  their  present  use. 
The  more  certain,  it  has  been  well  said,  a  man  can  feel 
that  the  character  of  any  given  street  is  fixed,  the  more 
he  is  willing  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  having  a  lot  on 
that  street  if  it  is  the  kind  of  street  he  wants.  He 
justifies  this  willingness  from  an  economic  standpoint 
by  the  argument  that  the  property,  for  the  use  for 
which  he  desires  it,  will  not  decline  in  value. 

Another  effect  of  a  more  rational  method  of  street 
platting  would  be  the  opening  of  additional  tracts  for 
building  purposes.  This  effect  was  touched  upon  in 
the  last  chapter,  where  it  was  pointed  out  that  the 
requirement  of  less  capital  to  develop  an  estate  meant 
the  development  of  more  estates.  From  the  stand- 
point of  real  estate  values  this  means  the  intensive 
productive  utilization  of  more  land.  It  means  that 
fewer  persons  owning  property  on  the  outskirts  of 
cities  need  be  "land  poor."  It  would  tend  to  produce 
a  greater  equalization  of  values  between  adjoining 
properties. 

Over  against  the  possibly  depressing  effect  upon 
values,  which  would  be  anticipated  from  a  greater 
supply  of  available  building  lots,  is  to  be  put  the 
increase  in  demand.  This  will  certainly  come  if  rents 

40 


STREET    WIDTH    AND    LAND    VALUES 

are  lowered,  and  may  be  expected,  in  any  case,  to 
follow  an  enhancement  in  the  attractiveness  of  small 
streets.  It  must  be  clear  that  streets  which  follow 
more  nearly  the  topography,  which  make  use  of  every 
natural  advantage,  which  are  narrow,  grass  bordered, 
quiet  ways  rather  than  broad  and  dusty  highways  that 
are  hot  in  summer  and  cold  in  winter,  would  call  men 
from  the  city  streets  with  an  even  greater  appeal  than 
suburban  tracts  now  call.  In  the  announcement,  issued 
by  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  of  Forest  Hills 
Gardens — the  Garden  City  it  is  building  on  Long 
Island — the  following  sentence,  significant  from  this 
point  of  view,  was  prepared  by  the  landscape  archi- 
tect: "Probably  one  of  the  most  notable  characteris- 
tics of  Forest  Hills  Gardens  will  be  the  cosy  domestic 
character  of  these  local  streets,  where  the  monotony 
of  endless  straight,  wind-swept  thoroughfares,  which 
are  the  New  York  conception  of  streets,  will  give  place 
to  short,  quiet,  self-contained  and  garden-like  neigh- 
borhoods, each  having  distinctive  character." 

Though  a  good  deal  has  been  said  about  the  cost  of 
making  needlessly  wide  streets,  a  factor  which  has  not 
less  influence  upon  rents  and  values  is  the  cost  of  main- 
taining such  thoroughfares  once  they  are  built.  The 
man  who  held  property  on  a  small  street  would  make 
a  great  saving  in  this  respect.  His  saving  would  rep- 
resent not  only  the  economy  of  having  to  provide  for 
the  depreciation  of  a  smaller  area  of  street,  but  it 
would  be  the  result  of  a  much  less  rapid  rate  of 
deterioration.  This  is  because  there  wrould  be  nothing 
but  local  travel  to  wear  out  the  street.  The  present 
property  holder  on  a  typical  suburban  street  is  very 
much  in  the  position  of  a  man  required  to  cover  his 
front  sidewalk  with  a  brussels  carpet  which  each 
person  who  walks  past  his  house  does  something  to 

41 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

wear  out.  As  everything  is  done  to  invite  people  to 
go  through  the  street,  and  as  nowadays  a  great  many 
play-loving  persons  are  riding  their  little  velocipedes 
up  and  down — in  other  words  automobiles — the  carpet 
wears  out  very  fast.  The  man  has  not  awakened  yet 
to  the  injustice  of  the  demand  that  he  provide  the 
carpet  where  he  does  not  want  one,  and  then  invite 
people,  who  are  only  a  nuisance  to  him,  to  use  it. 
Under  the  saner  method  of  street  platting,  his  carpet 
would  be  in  his  front  hall.  It  would  not  wear  out  so 
fast,  because  no  one  would  use  it  but  his  own  house- 
hold, his  nearest  neighbors,  and  their  visitors.  He 
would  not  grudge  the  wear  given  to  it  in  that  way, 
and  he  would  find  that  a  cheaper  grade  of  carpet, 
costing  less  in  the  first  place,  would  last  as  long  as  the 
body  brussels  laid  on  the  front  walk.  For  these  minor 
residential  streets,  inviting  no  through  travel,  would 
be  as  private  entrance  ways  to  the  few  houses  gathered 
upon  them. 

It  may  be  said  that  those  who  own  property  on  the 
main  traffic  highways  would  be  pretty  hard  hit  by 
construction  and  maintenance  charges,  if  all  through 
travel  were  concentrated  upon  their  streets.  This  is 
true,  but  there  are  three  answers  to  the  objection:  In 
the  first  place,  their  property  would  at  once  gain 
speculative  value.  It  would  have  the  commercial  pos- 
sibilities which  are  to  be  denied  to  the  minor  streets, 
and  wrhich  pay  such  high  returns.  In  the  second  place, 
it  would  not  be  unfair,  wherever  it  is  demanded  that 
wide  streets  be  put  through  a  residential  estate  for  the 
convenience  of  communication  between  districts  lying 
on  either  side  of  it,  to  require  that  the  general  body 
of  tax-payers  should  pay  the  cost  of  street  works  in 
excess  of  what  might  reasonably  be  held  to  make  for 
the  convenience  of  the  frontage  and  for  the  increase 

42 


STREET    WIDTH    AND    LAND    VALUE 

of  its  speculative  value.  Third,  it  is  probable  that, 
taking  the  city  or  even  the  neighborhood  as  a  whole, 
the  deterioration  of  pavement  would  be  much  less  than 
under  the  present  system.  There  would  be  a  smaller 
street  area  to  take  care  of,  and  some  pavements,  such 
as  asphalt,  deteriorate  less  rapidly  if  they  carry  a 
fairly  heavy  and  constant  stream  of  travel.  At,  any 
rate,  by  concentrating  the  bulk  of  the  traffic  on  a 
relatively  small  number  of  selected  streets,  these  could 
be  especially. prepared  for  it,  and  given  a  width  and 
style  of  pavement  calculated  to  handle  the  business 
with  the  least  delay  and  the  smallest  cost  for  operation 
and  maintenance.  Then  each  purely  local  street  could 
be  developed  in  the  way  that  would  best  suit  the  needs, 
the  means,  and  the  taste  of  the  people  it  is  designed  to 
serve. 

A  final  consideration  with  reference  to  real  estate 
values  is,  that  only  such  a  system  of  street  designing 
as  here  proposed  can  make  just  and  reasonable — and 
that  is  to  say,  can  make  possible — a  radical  limitation 
in  the  number  of  houses  which  may  be  constructed  to 
the  acre.  To  impose  a  limit  is  of  obvious  social  advan- 
tage. It  secures  to  the  householder  sufficient  light  and 
air  and  domestic  independence — to  say  nothing  of 
other  gains.  It  is  also  of  economic  advantage.  While, 
at  first  thought,  one  might  think  that  an  increase  in 
the  number  of  houses  on  a  given  area  of  land  would 
decrease  rents,  the  actual  result  in  the  long  run  is  the 
reverse  of  this.  Opportunity  to  overcrowd  land  raises 
its  price,  and  rents,  of  course,  bear  relation  to  the 
capital  invested.  Consequently  "land  sweating"  does 
not  lower  house  rents,  when  we  measure  rents  by  their 
purchasing  power. 

If,  then,  it  be  desired  to  limit  the  number  of  houses 
that  may  be  constructed  to  an  acre,  the  city  must  be 

43 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

fair  to  the  landowner.  If,  for  instance,  it  is  going  to 
say  to  him  that  he  cannot  construct  on  his  tract  more 
than  fifteen  houses  to  the  acre,  it  must  say  to  him  that 
he  will  not  have  to  pay,  for  the  development  and  main- 
tenance of  the  streets  in  his  tract,  any  such  sum  that 
thirty  houses  to  an  acre  would  be  necessary  to  give 
him  an  adequate  return  on  the  investment.  The  one 
act  requires  the  other.  Conversely,  if  the  owner  is  to 
be  relieved  of  the  cost  of  constructing  wide  streets,  he 
must  agree  to  a  restriction  of  the  land's  human  occu- 
pancy— by  limiting  the  height  of  his  houses  and  their 
number  per  acre — to  an  aggregate  giving  such  traffic 
as  the  street  can  care  for.  If,  that  is  to  say,  adjust- 
ment of  street  width  to  street  need  is  required,  to  make 
reasonable  the  placing  of  a  desirable  restriction  on 
land  development,  such  adjustment  carries  with  it  an 
obligation  on  the  part  of  the  owTner  to  consent  to  the 
restriction. 

It  is  clear,  under  these  conditions,  that  the  city, 
when  it  imposes  a  limit  on  the  number  of  houses  which 
can  be  erected  in  a  given  area,  does  place  an  approxi- 
mate limit  on  the  amount  of  traffic  for  which  provision 
need  be  made  by  the  local  streets  of  that  area.  The 
necessity  will  no  longer  exist  to  require  that  there  be 
adherence  to  rigid  specifications  designed  to  take  care 
of  a  traffic  which  may  increase  with  unchecked 
rapidity.  It  does  actually  become  possible  at  last  to 
adjust  the  street's  development  to  the  property's 
development.  But  when  no  limit  is  set  to  the  latter, 
as  in  unrestricted  areas,  the  standard  for  the  street 
work  must  be  set  by  the  dreams  of  the  most  optimistic 
promoter.  It  will  be  correspondingly  high,  and  cor- 
respondingly forgetful  of  the  common  good. 


44 


CHAPTER  V 

MA IX  TEAFFIC  STREETS 

THE  primary  purpose  of  a  street  is  to  afford  means 
of  communication,  that  is,  of  transit.  People  might, 
conceivably,  live  in  a  trackless  forest,  but  the  moment 
they  began  to  pass  from  shelter  to  shelter,  or  to  carry 
food  and  firewood  back  and  forth,  that  moment  a  path 
would  be  commenced — a  street  would  have  begun. 

As  means  of  transit  is  an  absolutely  essential 
product  of  the  town's  activity,  so  is  it  a  factor  indis- 
pensable to  the  community's  progress.  Largely,  alsor 
upon  the  degree  of  transportation  facility  depends  the 
cost  of  living.  The  influence  which  a  section  of  street 
in  front  of  a  dwelling  exerts  upon  the  rental  that  must 
be  charged  for  that  dwelling,  is  not,  therefore,  all 
summed  up  in  the  proportions  of  the  section  of  street 
considered  by  itself.  The  relation  of  those  propor- 
tions to  the  transportation  facilities  of  the  neighbor- 
hood are  a  vital  factor  in  the  determination  of  the 
rental  that  can  be  paid.  In  the  designing,  therefore, 
of  a  city's  streets,  no  more  important  test  is  to  be 
applied  than  that  of  the  adequacy  of  the  proposed 
arrangement  for  the  transportation  needs  of  the  area. 

It  is  in  deference  to  the  importance  of  this  test  that 
we  have  so  generally  widened  the  public  ways  of  our 
cities  and  towns.  We  have  seen  urban  transportation 
growing  enormously,  both  in  volume  and  in  the  means 
by  which  it  is  carried  on.  We  have  seen  the  narrow 
streets  of  the  towns  of  long  ago  choked  with  traffic. 
Consequently,  in  building  new  cities  and  in  adding  to 

45 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

ihe  old,  we  have  created  broad  thoroughfares  in 
recognition  of  -the  fact  that,  whatever  the  cost,  we 
must  make  it  possible  for  the  traffic  to  move.  As  civic 
engineers,  we  have  witnessed  a  flood  that  filled  old 
channels  to  overflowing,  and  we  have  taken  the  primi- 
tive step  in  flood  control  of  widening  the  channels. 
Then,  following  further  the  example  of  the  hydraulic 
engineers,  we  have  both  straightened  lines  and  from 
the  individual  street  have  removed  those  projections 
or  irregularities  which  might  retard  the  progress  of 
the  current.  All  of  this  action,  in  so  far  as  it  refers 
to  traffic  highways,  has  been  wise  and  natural. 

The  traffic  stream  for  which  we  must  provide  is  not 
;simply,  however,  a  matter  of  growing  volume.  It  is 
increasingly  complex  in  composition.  We  must  recall 
that  in  the  early  days  urban  traffic  wras  of  limited  ton- 
nage capacity  and  of  slow  movement.  Traffic  methods 
then  were  relatively  few.  Almost  the  only  movement 
was  on  foot  or  on  horseback.  The  social  activity  of 
the  towns  was  concentrated  in  a  few  open  spaces,  such 
as  the  market  place  and  the  squares  in  front  of  the 
churches,  rather  than  diffused  through  the  city  streets. 
Aside  from  a  few  main  thoroughfares,  there  were,  in 
towns  of  that  period,  only  narrow  passage  ways 
between  the  houses.  Inigo  Triggs  notes  that  in  even 
the  largest  mediaeval  towns  the  principal  streets  were 
not  as  a  rule  more  than  twenty-four  feet  broad,  or 
occasionally  thirty  feet;  that  lanes  were  not  over 
eighteen  feet;  and  that  alleys  were  generally  six  feet. 
In  small  towns  dimensions  were  even  less  than  these; 
and  there  wras  seldom  any  differentiation  of  surface 
for  the  purpose  of  separating  pedestrians  from  pack 
animals.  Yet  those  streets  served  fairly  well  the  traffic 
which  made  use  of  them. 

To  return  to  the  hydraulic  simile,  the  traffic  prob- 

46 


MAIN    TRAFFIC    STREETS 


lem  of  those  times  could  be  likened  to  a  very  sluggish 
water  movement,  such  as  can  be  accommodated  easily 
by  broad  ponds,  a  few  narrow  channels,  and  a  network 
of  connecting  slits.  This,  roughly,  was  the  street  plan 


Original  taken  by  G.  Reinecke,  Hannover 


POTTHOP 


Street  typical  of  a  mediaeval  town — when  the  street  plan  consisted  of  a 
few  broad  spaces,  united  by  ' '  narrow  channels  and  a  network  of 
connecting  slits." 

of  the  old  cities.  Conditions  of  modern  traffic  have 
substituted  for  those  conditions  a  raging  torrent, 
mighty  in  volume,  swift  in  movement,  irregular  in 
flow,  and  carrying  the  flotsam  and  jetsam  of  present 
day  commerce.  It  has  been  necessary  to  make  a 

47 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

division  of  streets  into  wheelways  and  footways,  and 
on  very  many  of  them  to  provide  tracks  for  mechan- 
ical locomotion.  The  street  is  no  longer  a  path.  It 
is  filled  with  a  life  and  motion  that  must  attract  even 
the  idler  and  loafer.  The  ordinary  movement  of 
traffic  upon  it  makes  such  a  pageant  that  it  is  often 
necessary  to  provide  space  for  spectators  also.  And 
with  it  all  there  is  such  danger  to  life  and  limb,  and 
such  nerve  racking  tumult,  that  we  must  provide  for 
interludes,  making  it  possible  for  spectators  and  actors 
to  go  into  quiet  homes  on  quiet  streets,  where  the  din 
of  traffic  will  not  disturb  their  sleep,  and  the  frail  and 
the  sick  and  the  child  may  live  in  safety. 

The  whole  problem  of  street  adjustment  has  thus 
become  immensely  enlarged  and  complicated.  It  is  no 
longer  sufficient  simply  to  widen  streets  and  untangle 
their  old  network ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  it  enough, 
in  the  extension  of  cities,  to  plat  simply  a  regular 
system  of  traffic  canals,  long,  straight,  and  monoto- 
nous, all  alike  in  dimensions  and  character.  We  must 
form  main  traffic  channels  that  in  location  and  arrange- 
ment shall  be  so  nearly  ideal  that  traffic  will  naturally 
concentrate  upon  them,  to  the  end  that  the  streets 
which  we  do  not  design  for  traffic  highways  shall  not 
be  unduly  used  by  traffic.  From  whatever  point  of 
view  we  approach  the  matter,  there  appears  the  need 
of  two  main  divisions  in  the  street  system.  As  in 
selling  clothes,  the  manufacturer  does  not  make  only 
one  size  of  hat  and  coat  and  induce  all  men  to  wear  it, 
so  in  building  streets,  we  should  provide  for  the  fat 
traffic  and  for  the  lean  traffic,  and  follow  the  example 
of  the  clothier  who  keeps  the  fat  man  out  of  the  lean 
man's  garments  by  designing,  especially  for  his  use, 
clothes  that  are  becoming  and  comfortable. 

The    question    of    street    transportation    is    many 

48 


MAIN"    TRAFFIC    STREETS 

sided  and  complex.  The  rapid  transit  phase  of  it 
alone  presents  problems  that  have  filled  many  books. 
The  New  York  Committee  on  Congestion  of  Popula- 
tion has  stated  in  a  pamphlet  that  "rapid  transit  is 
not  chiefly  a  financial  problem;  it  is  a  social  problem. 
It  is  a  question  not  of  dollars,  but  of  human  lives." 
But  in  limiting  our  discussion  to  a  consideration  of 
street  widths  as  these  are  affected  by  transportation, 
we  can  pass  over  some  of  the  more  technical  questions 
which  press  for  solution  with  regard  to  the  provision 
of  mechanical  means  of  locomotion.  Such  questions 
as  the  extension  and  financing  of  suburban  lines,  of 
the  relation  of  land  values  to  transit  facilities — how 
"the  trams  help  the  suburbs  and  the  suburbs  help  the 
trams;"  of  interurban  terminals,  of  the  relative  ad- 
vantage of  bringing  trunk  railroads  into  single 
terminal  stations  or  of  providing  for  their  trains  a  cir- 
culatory movement ;  of  fare  zones,  rush  hour  traffic,  of 
workiiigmen's  tickets;  of  the  disproportionate  growth 
of  travel  as  compared  to  the  growth  of  population,  and 
the  freight  terminal  problem — all  these  and  kindred 
questions,  though  they  be  intimately  bound  up  with 
the  extension  of  cities,  need  not  here  concern  us.  We 
have  problems  enough  in  providing  streets  adequate 
for  the  varying  surface  traffic  which  would  make  use 
of  them. 

The  first  thing  to  recognize  is  that  the  problem 
with  which  we  have  to  deal  is  a  community  problem. 
Some  years  ago,  when  the  Boyal  Commission  on  Lon- 
don Traffic  brought  in  one  of  its  reports,*  it  stated 
that  it  found  that  the  leading  cause  of  the  city's  con- 
gestion was  the  absence  of  a  central  authority,  charged 
with  the  supervision  of  the  traffic  arrangements  of 
London  as  a  whole.  It  noted  that  railways  had  been 

*  Volume  VII,  1905. 

49 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

built,  new  streets  opened  out,  and  tramways  laid  down 
at  local  instance,  to  meet  merely  sectional  require- 
ments, and  without  regard  either  to  the  needs  of  the 
rest  of  the  community  or  to  the  .pressing  claims  of 
posterity.  This  condition  which  is  at  fault  in  London 
is  general  among  cities.  It  obviously  is  so  much  better 
and  more  reasonable  that  new  streets  which  are 
destined  to  be  main  lines  of  communication  should  be 
planned,  not  by  the  owner  of  the  land  in  accordance 
with  his  conception  of  his  own  interests,  but,  having 
due  regard  for  him,  by  the  town,  in  accordance  with 
the  interest  and  needs  of  the  whole  population,  that 
the  matter  requires  no  argument  here.  In  German 
cities,  in  Belgian,  in  some  Swiss,  in  Sweden,  and  in 
England,  under  the  present  town-planning  law,  such 
action  is  now  taken. 

It  is  true,  as  Mr.  Marsh*  has  indicated,  that  the  use 
to  which  land  is  to  be  put,  and  the  intensiveness  of  its 
development,  are  factors  "to  be  determined,  logically,, 
before  any  radical  plan  for  transit  can  be  developed. " 
But  radical  plans  need  not  here  concern  us.  We  shall 
assume  the  advisability  of  providing  space  for  surface 
car  tracks  on  all  main  highways.  More  highly  devel- 
oped means  of  transit  would  not,  probably,  require 
street  provision. 

It  is  well  to  observe  certain  principles  that,  for  the 
proper  provision  of  transportation  facilities,  may 
properly  guide  in  platting  the  new  areas,  when  once 
we  have  taken  the  community  point  of  view.  These 
tracts,  if  sufficiently  large  to  permit  anything  like  com- 
prehensive planning,  are  likely  to  be  traversed  by 
some  existing  highways.  It  may  be  assumed  that  there 
was  and  is  good  reason  for  such  roads.  Once  in  a 
while  their  grades  may  be  excessive,  but  generally  it 

*"An  Introduction  to  City  Planning,"  by  Benjamin  C.  Marsh. 

50 


MAIN    TRAFFIC    STREETS 

is  probable  that  their  alignment  was  sacrificed  for 
easy  grades  at  the  time  when  they  were  laid  out.  In 
the  United  States,  at  least,  that  was  likely  to  be  a  time 
when  improved  country  roads  were  almost  unknown, 
and  heavily  ladened  vehicles  were  obliged  to  avoid 
excessive  grades.  These  existing  country  roads,  even 
when  rectangular  in  general  arrangement,  have  prob- 


By  courtesy  of  the  Metropolitan  Improvements  Commission,  [Boston} 

HIGHWAYS  LEADING  INTO  BOSTON 

Note   their  naturally  radial   character  and  how  they  fork  as  they  get 
further  from  the  center. 

ably  a  radial  relation  to  the  city  nucleus,  and  may 
well  be  taken  to  form  the  basis  of  the  extension  of  the 
city  street  system.  As  existing  and  natural  traffic 
channels,  we  may  expect  streets  developed  from 
country  roads  to  remain  important  traffic  thorough- 
fares. As  a  first  step,  then,  we  must  widen  and 
straighten  these  principal  channels,  as  hydraulic, 
engineers  would  do  under  the  like  conditions. 

51 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

In  street  building,  however,  "straightening" 
should  not  be  understood  always  to  mean  rectilinear 
and  parallel  margins.  An  occasional  extra  widening, 
the  break  of  a  small  open  space  at  one  side,  a  concavity 
of  street  facade  in  abutting  structures,  which  makes 
space  for  cab  stands,  for  kiosks,  or  for  a  group  of 
trees,  may  add  greatly  to  the  charm  of  the  street, 
while  heightening  rather  than  lessening  its  traffic 
value.  Again,  that 'slight  departure  from  absolutely 
straight  lines  which  makes  negligible  addition  to  street 
length  may  add  very  much  to  street  beauty.  It  is  their 
waving  line  that  is  responsible,  in  large  measure,  for 
the  charm  of  some  old-world  traffic  thoroughfares, 
.such  as  The  High  in  Oxford,  the  Grand  Canal  in 
Venice  and  the  Lung  Arno  in  Florence.*  Buildings 
are  seen  at  advantageous  angles  of  perspective  and 
there  is  a  varying  play  of  light  and  shade.  But  the 
curves  must  be  long.  The  sinuosity  which  looks  well 
on  paper  is  very  likely  to  seem  wigglety  when  on  the 
.ground,  and  the  only  test  is  that  the  street  shall  please 
as  one  passes  along  it.  To  do  this,  it  must  have  no 
studied  effect,  must  give  no  hint  of  affectation.  Hence 
it  were  absurd  to  attempt  to  lay  down  a  general  rule. 

Nor,  indeed,  should  all  arterial  streets  have  wav- 
ing lines.  There  is  a  certain  grandeur — the  grandeur, 
some  one  has  said,  which  was  imperial  Rome 's — in  the 
straight  line  for  a  street.  When  the  scale  of  construc- 
tion is  very  large,  there  is  a  masterful  firmness  in 
rigidity  of  street  line  which  is  more  satisfying  than 
flexibility  could  be. 

So,  by  straightness,  or  very  slight  and  gently  made 
deviations  from  straightness,  the  main  highway  will 

*  America  is  not  entirely  without  examples  of  this,  especially  among 
the  older  cities.  Observe,  for  instance,  the  gently  waving  line  of  Main 
Street,  in  Springfield,  Mass. 

52 


MAIN    TRAFFIC    STREETS 

be  fitted  to  expedite  its  traffic  to  destination.  But  this 
will  not  in  itself  suffice.  As  open  country  is  trans- 
formed into  a  populated  area,  more  is  needed  than  the 
widening  and  "straightening"  of  original  channels  to 
care  for  the  swelling  streams  of  traffic.  Accordingly 
we  must  lay  out  additional  highways,  also  of  generally 
radial  character  as  respects  the  center,  interspersing 
them,  as  we  foresee  will  be  necessary,  between  the 
existing  roads.* 

G.  H.  Knibbs,  F.E.A.S.,  has  noted  that  it  is  with  a 
radial  street  system  that ' '  the  greatest  area  is  reached 
with  the  least  length  of  street. ' '  He  adds, ' '  The  great- 
est distance  to  be  traversed  in  passing  from  any  one 
point  to  another,  as  compared  with  the  direct  distance 
between  the  points,  is  approximately  a  minimum  when 
the  angles  between  the  diverging  streets  are  about 
60° — that  is,  when  the  radial  system  is  hexagonal." 
As  suggested,  however,  by  the  footnote,  no  fixed  rule 
has  been  followed  in  planning  actual  radial  streets. 
Even  when  the  center  of  convergence  is  a  point  rather 
than  a  considerable  area,  there  is  much  diversity  in 
practice,  the  most  formal  plans  being  somewhat  af- 
fected by  existing  conditions  of  site,  etc.  Thus,  the 
Arc  de  Triomphe  in  Paris  has  fourteen  converging 
avenues ;  while  the  Place  de  la  Bastille  in  Paris  and  the 
Capitol  in  Washington  have  eleven.  As  Professor 
Eberstadt  has  said, ' '  There  is  nothing  absolute  in  town 
building" — nor  should  there  be. 

If  of   radial   character,   our  main  highways   will 

*"In  Berlin  fourteen  great  roads  connected  by  a  circle  radiate 
from  the  seat  of  this  military  government  and  lend  themselves  to 
effective  and  economical  expansion  of  the  city  on  all  sides.  In  London 
there  are  three  principal  civic  centers:  Trafalgar  Square,  the  Bank, 
and  the  Elephant  and  Castle.  From  the  triangle  thus  bounded  sixteen 
radial  routes  diverge. ' ' — Robert  S.  Peabody,  in  ' '  A  Holiday  Study  of 
Cities  and  Ports. ' ' 

53 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

become  further  and  further  apart  as  one  travels  out- 
ward from  the  center.  Doubtless  we  shall  find  it 
advisable,  therefore,  to  branch  them  occasionally.  If 
these  branches  should  come  at  intervals  of  approxi- 
mately three-quarters  of  a  mile,  and  the  branching 
point  should  be  dignified  by  some  striking  architec- 
tural accent,  the  aspect  of  the  streets  would  be  vastly 
Improved.  But  the  three-quarter  mile  interval  is  not 
a  fixed  distance.  Much  must  depend,  even  as  far  as 
looks  are  concerned,  on  the  street's  grade,  width,  and 
general  treatment;  and  looks  can  be  very  seldom 
indeed  the  sole  determining  factor.  Yet  it  is  worth 
while  in  our  platting  not  to  forget  that  a  comparatively 
short  street — or  one  containing  a  focal  point  clearly 
visible  throughout  its  length — is  far  preferable  aes- 
thetically to  a  long  one,  and  is  much  less  wearisome 
to  the  traveler. 

Between  the  arms  of  the  main  framework,  thus 
constructed,  it  will  be  necessary  to  provide  cross  con- 
nections, which  in  their  turn  will  become  main  channels 
for  the  cross,  or  circumferential,  traffic.  This  traffic 
is  not  only  of  sufficient  importance  in  itself  to  deserve 
such  recognition,  but  provision  for  it  will  relieve  the 
main  radial  thoroughfares.  Otherwise  these  furnish 
for  cross  traffic — especially  for  that  which  uses  street 
cars — a  very  roundabout  course,  into  the  center  and 
out  again,  that  adds  to  their  own  natural  congestion 
and  wastes  energy  and  time.  These  circumferential 
streets  will  tend,  in  their  turn,  to  be  broad  and  nearly 
straight,  between  the  radial  or  parallel  highways. 
Naturally  we  shall  try  to  have  them  intersect  those 
highways  at  the  branching  points  so  that  they  may 
serve  the  largest  possible  number  of  people. 

At  the  place  where  the  intersections  occur,  the 
street  area  may  be  enlarged  to  create  small  plazas. 

54 


These  plazas  will  be  not  only  of  traffic  service,  but  will 
lend  themselves  to  the  construction  of  the  desirable 
architectural  accent.*  At  these  points  also  should  be 
developed  secondary  centers,  not  only  of  business  but 
of  administration.  Finally,  there  will  be  some  need  for 
diagonal  streets,  especially  if  the  main  framework  be 


Spnng_6arder.  ^ 


Ax  INTERSECTION  OF  IMPORTANT  STREETS 

Development  proposed  in  Philadelphia.     Note  the  grouping  of  the  local 
public  buildings. 

rectangular,  in  order  to  develop,  through  the  induce- 
ment of  short  cuts,  main  traffic  highways  that  will 
effectively  relieve  minor  streets  of  the  burden  of 
through  travel.  Incidentally  these  short  cuts  will  be 
an  economy  in  transportation. 

The  system  of  main  highways,  thus  developed,  if 
made  sufficiently  elaborate,!  will  constitute  the  skele- 

*  Kaymond  Unwin's  "Town  Planning  in  Practice"  contains  a  very 
interesting  discussion  of  various  ways  of  treating  street  junction  points 
architecturally,  so  as  to  secure  such  accents  and  break  the  monotony  of 
streets. 

t  Some  comments  on  aesthetic  considerations,  which  are  given  later, 
in  Chapter  VII,  are  applicable  to  main  traffic  roads  as  well  as  to 
residence  streets. 

55 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

ton  of  the  extended  street  plan.  We  shall  find  it  in 
complete  articulation  with  the  street  plan  of  the  inner 
city.  Then,  the  main  highways  having  been  planned, 
the  interstices  between  the  main  lines  of  the  frame- 
work can  be  filled  in  with  those  minor  streets  which 
will  not  invite  through  travel.  Indeed,  for  the  further 
discouragement  of  such  travel  these  need  not  always 
be  straight,  direct,  or  of  easy  gradient.  They  should, 
rather,  be  quiet  byways  for  residence,  and  given  a  cor- 
respondingly cosy  and  domestic  character. 

Of  the  main  highways,  many  will  probably  carry 
lines  of  rapid  transit.  The  number  of  these  must 
increase  with  the  growth  of  population  and  with  the 
outwrard  extension  of  the  city,  so  that  it  will  be  best 
to  make  them  of  such  width  that  it  will  be  practicable 
to  put  car  tracks  on  any  one  of  them,  should  the  need 
arise.*  It  never  ought  to  be  necessary  to  put  car 
tracks  on  a  street  so  narrow  that  they  absorb  most  of 
the  roadway.  A  prohibition,  such  as  that  now  effective 
in  New  York,  which  forbids  the  construction  of  a 
single  track  surface  railroad  on  any  street  having  a 
roadway  less  than  thirty  feet  wide,  or  a  double  track 
surface  railroad  where  the  roadway  is  less  than  forty 
feet  wide,  \vould  safeguard  the  minor  streets. 

As  to  just  how  wide  the  great  thoroughfares  should 
be,  it  is  as  impossible  to  designate  an  exact  standard 
for  them  as  it  is  unwise  to  standardize  minor  streets. 
They  will  be  used  in  various  ways  for  various  kinds 

*  It  seems  reasonable  to  expect  that  a  persistent  increase  in  the  use 
of  electric  surface  roads  in  cities  must  result  not  only  from  growth  of 
passenger  travel,  which  increases  faster  than  population,  but  through 
appreciation  of  their  freight  carrying  value.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  likely 
that  eventually  there  will  be  diverted  to  their  rails — between  certain 
hours  at  least — much  of  that  transportation  which  now,  through  break- 
age of  bulk  and  laborious  individual  truckage,  adds  so  disproportionately 
to  the  cost  of  freight  movement,  while  so  increasing  the  congestion  of 
.streets  and  the  wear  of  pavements. 

56 


MAIN    TRAFFIC    STREETS 

of  transportation.    But  these  thoughts  at  least  may  be 
kept  in  mind : 

1.  That  the  primary  purpose  of  such  highways  is 
to  make  it  possible  for  the  travel  upon  them  to  move 
safely  and  easily,  swiftly  and  inexpensively. 

2.  That  the  whole  history  of  transportation  has 
been  marked  by  a  gradual  increase  in  the  size  of  the 
transporting  unit,  so  that  it  behooves  us  to  be  generous 
in  the  provision  of  space. 

3.  That  as  the  travel  upon  such  thoroughfares  will 
be  human  travel,  for  the  most  part  the  daily  ebb  and 
flow  of  the  tide  between  home  and  work,  it  will  be  well 
to  make  these  streets,  as  far  as  practicable,  pleasant 
ways  of  going. 

AVith  these  considerations  in  mind,  the  statement 
may  be  repeated  that  it  probably  is  advisable  to  make 
all  main  highways  wide  enough  to  carry  a  double-track 
surface  railroad,  and  it  is  desirable  that  they  offer  the 
opportunity  to  put  this  on  a  distinct  right-of-wray.  As 
a  city  grows,  the  tendency  is  to  utilize  all  streets  of 
this  character  for  rapid  transit,  and  to  recognize  this 
in  the  platting  is  simply  a  commonsense  look  ahead. 
Track  gauges  differ  somewhat,  but  in  order  to  provide 
the  right-of-way,  it  would  be  necessary  as  a  rule  to  be 
able  to  set  apart  a  strip  at  least  twenty  feet  wide.  The 
separate  right-of-way,  though  it  may  not  always  be 
granted,  is  desirable  because  it  permits  a  quick  move- 
ment of  cars,  and  makes  their  operation  possible  at  the 
minimum  of  danger  and  discomfort  to  other  traffic. 
This  acceleration  of  the  street  car  movement  is  a  mat- 
ter of  economic  concern  to  the  community,  because  it 
widens  the  zone  of  available  residence  for  the  city's 
workers,  and,  in  doing  this,  gives  marketability  to 
increased  areas  of  land  for  home  sites. 

On  a  street  where  general  traffic  is  of  a  business 

57 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

character,  it  is  likely  to  be  enough  to  separate  the  rail- 
road right-of-way  from  the  street  proper — whether  the 
railroad  be  in  the  center  or  at  the  side  of  the  street — by 
simply  a  curb.  An  additional  foot  of  space  would  take 
care  of  this.  Where  the  traffic  is  largely  made  up  of 
pleasure  driving,  as  on  boulevard  or  parkway,  or  on 
a  high  class  residence  street,  it  may  be  well  to  widen 
the  strip  a  total  of  five  to  twenty  feet  beyond  the  actual 
car  requirement,  in  order  to  permit  the  screening  of 
the  track,  by  planting  trees  and  shrubs,  to  permit  the 
deadening  of  the  railroad's  noise  and  the  elimination 
of  its  dust  by  wide  turf  borders,  or  the  ornamentation 
of  the  space  with  flower  borders  and  the  training  of 
vines.  Further,  if  the  street  railroad  be  allowed  such 
separate  right-of-way,  which  can  be  turf  covered 
between  the  rails,  the  cost  of  construction  is  consider- 
ably less  than  when  the  road  is  required  to  lay  a 
pavement.  In  many  cases  the  saving  would  be  enough 
to  pay  for  the  additional  width  of  street  the  arrange- 
ment requires.  It  may  be  noted,  however,  that  the 
community  has  something  to  gain,  as  well  as  the  com- 
pany, in  any  safe  reduction  of  construction  cost  which 
may  make  possible  a  low  fare  for  a  long  ride. 

In  addition  to  the  space  set  aside  for  car  tracks — a 
space,  that  is  to  say,  of  twenty  to  forty  feet — there 
must  be  space  for  vehicles  to  stop  at  the  curb  without 
interrupting  the  through  travel.  This  means  the  use, 
for  the  two  sides  of  the  street,  of  some  sixteen  feet. 
Then  the  number  of  streams  of  through  travel  for 
which  there  must  be  provision  is  a  matter  that  cannot 
be  treated  in  any  general  way.  Each  case  must  be 
considered  by  itself.  Some  streets,  for  instance,  lead 
simply  into  open  country,  becoming  more  and  more 
sparsely  settled  the  further  one  goes  from  town ; 
others  are  highways  connecting  important  and  popu- 

58 


MAIX    TRAFFIC    STREETS 

lous  communities  with  the  city,  and  carrying  a  cor- 
respondingly heavy  traffic;  others  again  lead  to  parks 
or  popular  resorts.  In  any  case,  it  must  be  foreseen 
that  the  traffic  will  grow  faster  than  the  city  grows, 
and  it  will  seem  that  to  provide  for  two  uninterrupted 
lines  of  travel  in  each  direction,  one  for  slowly  moving 
and  one  for  swiftly  moving  vehicles,  would  be  gen- 
erally a  minimum  for  such  main  streets  as  are  under 
consideration.*  Because  it  seems  reasonable  to  expect 
the  unit  of  vehicle  to  increase  in  size,  and  because  for 
rapid  movement  and  heavier  travel  it  is  necessary  to 
provide  ample  clearance  space  between  vehicles,  we 
may  assume  that  four  lines  of  travel  would  require 
thirty-six  to  forty  feet. 

This  is  fairly  liberal,  for  under  present  conditions 
thirty-six  feet  allows  a  clearance  space  of  about  a 
foot  on  either  side  of  each  vehicle,  and  it  might  per- 
haps be  argued  that  the  vehicles  standing  at  the  curb 
do  not  require  any  clearance  space  of  their  own. 
Moreover,  the  manufacturers  of  motor  trucks,  in  reply 
to  inquiries,  now  assert  with  rather  remarkable  una- 

*  The  author  is  aware  that  a  report  recently  brought  out,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Society  of  Technical  Superior  Officers  of  German  Cities, 
expresses  the  opinion  that  very  broad  carriage  ways  do  not  appreciably 
distribute  the  traffic,  even  when  the  traffic  is  heavy.  In  proof  of  this  it 
states  that  the  traffic  keeps  its  accustomed  tracks,  as  shown  by  the  wear- 
ing down  of  strips  of  roadway  surface,  while  the  pavement  between  these 
tracks  remains  little  used.  With  due  deference  to  the  source  of  this 
report,  it  should  be  pointed  out  that  the  finding  is  not,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  adverse  to  the  value  of  broad  carriage  ways.  The  ' '  little  use ' ' 
of  ' '  the  pavement  between ' ' — by  which  one  vehicle  gets  past  another, 
on  occasion — may  make  the  whole  difference  between  the  efficiency  and 
congestion  of  a  highway.  But  it  is  true,  that  if  the  increase  of  width 
be  not  enough  for  another  vehicle  plus  its  clearance,  the  addition  is  not 
worth  much.  For  example,  five  feet  might  be  added  to  the  width  of  a 
congested  roadway  without  appreciably  relieving  the  situation,  since 
this  space  is  insufficient  to  allow  a  vehicle  to  get  by,  or  to  accommodate 
an  additional  line  of  vehicles. 

59 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

nimity  that  the  limit  of  width  has  been  reached.  The 
fact,  however,  that  the  historic  tendency  in  nearly 
every  kind  of  transportation  unit  is  against  their 
statement  seems  to  justify  the  proposed  extra  pro- 
vision for  the  future.  And  it  may  be  recalled  that  if 
vehicles  are  backed  to  the  curb,  instead  of  standing 
parallel  to  it,  they  need  thirteen  and  a  half  feet,  or  a 


CAR  TRACKS  ON  A  CENTRAL  RESERVED  STRIP — TREE-BORDERED  AND  SODDED 
View  of  a  section  of  Beacon  Street,  Boston. 

total  of  twenty-seven  feet  on  the  two  sides,  instead  of 
the  sixteen  allotted  in  the  original  estimate. 

Finally,  as  business  is  likely  to  make  use  of  these 
streets — the  stores  that  serve  the  residential  neigh- 
borhoods should  be  encouraged  to  locate  on  them— 
there  must  be  allowance  of  sufficient  sidewalk  space. 
This  could  hardly  be  less  than  twelve  feet  on  a  side, 
whether  or  not  it  be  all  paved  at  first. 

A  main  highway  having  a  width  of  one  hundred 
feet  would  seem,  these  calculations  being  considered, 
to  be  close  to  the  minimum.  It  might  provide  : 

60 


MAIN    TRAFFIC    STREETS 


Four  lines  of  through  travel 36  to  40  ft. 

Space  at  two  curbs  for  waiting  vehicles ...  1 6  to  16  " 

A  double  car  track 20  to  20  " 

Two  sidewalks  .  28  to  24  " 


100     100  ft. 

If  the  railroad  strip  were  given  the  additional 
width  suggested,  if  the  sidewalk  space  were  widened — 
twenty  feet  has  been  suggested  for  a  business  street, 
and  if  trees  are  to  be  placed  on  a  main  highway,  where 
the  buildings  are  likely  to  be  erected  at  the  front  lot 
line,  there  should  be  enough  sidewalk  space  to  make  it 
possible  for  them  to  stand  as  much  as  twenty  feet 
from  the  building  line — if  there  were  provision  of  a 
bridle  path,  if  business  and  pleasure  vehicles  had 
separate  roadways,  if  there  were  a  broad  central 
promenade,  or  other  important  ornamental  features, 
the  width  would  be  increased  to  two  or  possibly  three 
times  these  figures. 

It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  to  note  that  at 
present  Berlin  requires  that  principal  thoroughfares 
shall  not  have  a  less  width  than  95  feet ;  that  the  Royal 
Commission  on  London  Traffic  makes  100  feet  the 
standard  for  first-class  arterial  streets,  and  140  feet 
for  "main  avenues"— the  latter  to  carry  four  lines 
of  tracks;  and  that  secondary  German  cities,  such  as 
Leipzig,  Frankfort,  and  Hanover  put  the  figure  for 
main  thoroughfares  at  85  to  118  feet — none  of  them 
provisions  that  can  be  said  to  be  too  liberal  as  respects 
the  future.  On  the  other  hand,  Unter  den  Linden  in 
Berlin,  with  its  tree-lined  central  promenade,  is  193 
feet  wide ;  the  Ringstrasse  in  Vienna  is  18814  feet ;  the 
Avenue  des  Champs-Elyse'es  in  Paris  varies  from  230 
to  260  feet ;  Arborway  at  Franklin  Park,  and  portions 

61 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

of  Commonwealth  Avenue,  in  Boston,  are  200  feet, 
Eastern  and  Ocean  Parkways  in  Brooklyn  are  210 
feet,  and  150  feet  is  by  no  means  unusual  among 
Western  cities  of  the  United  States.* 

There  are  one  or  two  other  points  to  be  emphasized, 
with  reference  to  these  wide  streets :  If  a  width  of  at 
least  a  hundred  feet  for  main  thoroughfares  seems 
extravagant,  let  it  be  remembered  that  when  such 
streets  are  widened,  and  thus  are  able  to  serve  ade- 
quately their  proper  function  as  main  traffic  highways, 
it  will  be  possible  to  narrow  all  the  streets  which  are 
of  distinctly  local  character.  To  give  a  few  strate- 
gically placed  principal  streets  ample  width,  so  that 
through  travel  will  find  in  them  sufficient  accommoda- 
tion, is  in  actual  fact  not  as  extravagant  as  to  give  to 
all  streets,  whether  local  or  arterial,  a  uniform  width 
which  is  more  than  they  need  for  the  one  use  and  not 
as  much  as  they  ought  to  have  for  the  other.  To  put 
the  matter  concretely,  we  may  say  that  in  any  par- 
ticular area  to  raise  the  width  of  twenty  miles  of  street 
from  sixty  feet  to  one  hundred  feet,  and  sometimes 
more,  reducing  at  the  same  time  the  width  of  forty 

*  A  most  interesting  scheme  for  a  great  city  highway  is  one  drawn 
up  by  D.  Barclay  Niven,  Esq.,  F.R.I.B.A.,  for  London;  but,  as  Professor 
Mawson  remarks,  applicable  with  local  adaptation  to  any  large  city. 
This  contemplates  a  thoroughfare  330  feet  in  width.  It  is  divided  as 
follows:  A  service  road  with  sidewalk,  forty  feet;  a  four-track  elec- 
tric railway,  in  open  cut,  one  hundred  and  ten  feet — this  space  including 
the  sloping  sides  of  the  cut;  a  -"boulevard"  drive,  seventy  feet;  a 
promenade  or  plaisance,  tree  bordered,  seventy  feet,  and  then  the  second 
service  road  and  walk,  forty  feet.  This  of  course  is  very  expensive  and 
very  grand  in  scale;  but  if  we  imagine  it  applied  to  a  radial  road,  and 
consider  the  extent  of  additional  building  area  which  it  would  make 
available  by  its  traffic  efficiency,  the  expense  may  not  seem  unwise.  A 
reproduction  is  appended  of  the  interesting  diagram,  illustrating  such  a 
street  with  the  location  of  public  buildings  at  an  intersection,  which 
Professor  Mawson  gives  in  his  monumental  work  on  "Civic  Art,"  pub- 
lished in  1911. 

62 


MAIN  TRAFFIC  STREETS 


r^  c-»  tr>ervce     %X%X 

ilway  jl  Boulevard      [jPleasance i  j  Road   ^ 


D.  BARCLAY  XIVEX  's  PLAX  FOR  A  GREAT  HIGHWAY  FOR  LONDON 


63 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

other  miles  of  street  from  sixty  feet  to  an  average  of 
less  than  thirty  feet,  would  really  mean  an  appropria- 
tion of  less  land  for  streets.  Furthermore,  there  is 
incalculable  economy  in  getting  the  main  traffic  streets 
wide  enough  at  the  start.  In  June,  1907,  the  Associa- 
tion of  Municipal  Corporations  of  England  submitted 
figures  which  showed  that  two-thirds  of  the  great 
English  towns  had  expended  on  the  widening  of  main 
highways  during  the  preceding  ten  years  an  average 
of  nearly  a  million  pounds  a  year.  Had  those  streets 
been  given  sufficient  width  at  the  beginning,  when 
values  were  low,  almost  all  of  this  drain  would  have 
been  saved. 

But  not  only  is  there  financial  economy  in  building 
well  located  main  thoroughfares  on  an  ample  scale; 
there  result  also  a  great  increase  in  street  efficiency, 
the  more  economical  development  of  real  estate  as  well 
as  of  streets,  a  street  system  of  much  more  variety 
and  interest  than  one  in  which  all  streets  are  alike; 
and,  finally,  a  system  that,  by  means  of  these  great 
highways,  establishes  frequent  fire  breaks  and  makes 
it  possible  for  strong  currents  of  fresh  air  to  percolate 
through  the  city. 

A  danger  that  the  platting  of  main  highways  on 
such  a  general  plan  as  here  outlined  may  lead  to 
uniformity  in  street  system,  at  least  as  respects  their 
main  framework,  is  less  real  than  apparent.  It  has 
been  said  that  topography  and  existing  country  high- 
ways must  largely  determine  the  lay  out  of  these 
streets.  The  first,  for  the  avoidance  of  very  steep 
grades,  is  likely  in  most  cases  to  require  some  long 
sweeping  curves;  while  country  highways  are  seldom 
perfectly  straight  for  extended  distances — for  the 
taking  out  of  small  kinks,  which  is  the  thing  that  was 
meant  in  suggesting  their  "straightening,"  would  not 

64 


-MAIN    TRAFFIC    STREETS 

remove  definite  changes  of  direction.  Moreover,  the 
proportion  of  towns  built  on  a  level  plain,  and  which, 
therefore,  might  be  thought  in  danger  of  adherence  to 
an  unbroken  stereotyped  pattern,  is  small.  Even 
among  them,  one  portion  will  often  be  bounded  by  a 
body  of  water,  or  by  other  natural  feature,  of  irregular 
outline;  a  meandering  stream  will  cause  variety,  or 
the  location  and  irregularity  of  park  lands  will  break 
the  uniformity.  Finally,  the  minor  streets,  under  the 
suggestion  here  broadly  outlined,  will  always  lend  the 
charm  of  the  unexpected.  Mere  likeness  of  direction 
in  streets  does  not  much  impress  one  on  the  ground. 
Variation  in  width  counts  for  more. 

But  if  the  worst  did  happen,  and  there  was,  con- 
ceivably, a  likeness  among  principal  traffic  streets  in 
the  extension  plans  of  various  towns,  few  persons 
would  ever  think  of  comparing  designs.  Indeed,  the 
vague  consciousness  of  likeness  in  respect  to  those 
streets  would  prove,  as  far  as  it  goes,  something  of  a 
public  convenience.  It  is  to  be  recognized,  too,  that 
he  who  adequately  approaches  the  problem  of  city 
planning  will  look  for  nothing  more  eagerly  than  for 
evidences  of  the  city's  natural  individuality.  This  is 
an  intangible  something,  more  expressed  perhaps  by 
irregularities  than  it  is  by  any  other  feature,  which  is 
the  secret  of  each  city's  own  peculiar  charm.  To  any 
evidences  of  this  which  he  may  find,  the  city  planner 
will  pay  great  deference.  He  will  let  them  temper  his 
whole  re-casting  and  subtly  affect  his  every  scheme. 

As  Cornelius  Gurlitt  has  said,  "The  artistically 
creative  city  planner  should  seek  out  all  peculiarities 
of  the  site  and  emphasize  them  according  to  their 
individuality;  thereby,  whenever  possible,  reconciling 
every  contradiction  between  his  planning  and  the 
aspects  of  nature.  He  should  take  into  question  the 

65 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

irregularities  of  the  surface,  the  existing  streets  and 
ways  in  their  natural  configuration,  the  property  lines 
and  the  single  natural  features — even  if  nothing  but 
several  old  trees.  Notwithstanding  this,  he  should 
impart  all  practical  advantages  to  traffic,  to  circum- 
stances of  habitation,  and  to  the  administration  of 
individual  properties. ' ' 

In  suggesting  rules,  one  is  necessarily  definite ;  in 
carrying  them  out,  there  will  be  a  thousand  exceptions. 
Thomas  H.  Mawson  has  well  said:  "Even  to  design 
a  house  or  garden  ideally,  it  is  necessary  to  grasp  the 
configuration  of  the  site  as  a  whole,  and  to  catch  the 
atmosphere  and  traditions  of  the  domain  and  district 
with  innate  artistic  perception,  or  even  the  rarer  re- 
sponse of  poetic  grace.  It  is  much  easier  to  build  and 
garden  well — to  impart  a  grand  or  stylish  air  to  the 
mansion  and  to  make  the  garden  superior  and  luxuri- 
ant than  to  build  a  fine  city."  A  book  of  this  kind 
cannot,  therefore,  dictate ;  it  only  suggests,  in  a  broad 
and  general  way. 

At  the  close  of  a  chapter  on  main  highways,  there 
should  be,  perhaps,  a  special  word  with  regard  to  the 
business  district.  For  here  is  a  district  where  all  the 
streets  are  traffic  ways.  But  even  here  some  are  more 
so  than  others ;  and  the  general  principle  of  particular 
width  for  those  widen  carry  particularly  heavy  traffic, 
of  the  value  of  radials  or  diagonals  to  furnish  cut-offs, 
of  the  avoidance  of  jogs  and  irregularities  of  platting, 
applies  as  it  did  for  the  town  as  a  whole,  except  now 
with  more  universality  and  in  a  concentrated  form. 

It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  in  the  business 
district  an  alley  system  is  of  peculiar  value.  An  alley 
gives  an  additional  opportunity  for  fighting  fire,  that 
may  be  worth  much  in  a  section  which  is  closely  built 

66 


MAIN    TRAFFIC    STREETS 

up;  and  at  doors  that  open  on  to  alleys,  goods  can  be 
loaded  and  unloaded  systematically  without  interrup- 
tion by,  or  interruption  to,  the  traffic  of  the  street. 
Because  of  these  facts,  business  lots  which  run  through 
to  alleys  have  a  higher  valuation  than  those  which  do 
not  possess  such  facilities.  The  alley  is  also,  its  front- 
age costing  only  a  fraction  of  that  on  the  street,  a 
convenient  place  for  stables,  boiler  rooms,  etc.  Un- 
doubtedly, a  business  district  is  much  more  efficient 
witli  alleys  than  without  them. 

If  the  town  be  on  a  navigable  body  of  water,  a  two- 
level  construction  of  the  marginal  street — nearly 
always  a  main  thoroughfare — is  of  great  usefulness. 
This  can  be  secured  by  running  a  bank  or  retaining 
wall  longitudinally  through  the  middle  of  the  street. 
The  half  at  the  summit  of  the  bank  or  wall  thus 
becomes  a  sort  of  terrace,  or  elevated  street.  The 
natural  incline  of  the  shore  is  likely  to  facilitate  such 
an  arrangement,  which  has  the  advantage  of  making 
possible  the  devotion  of  the  lower  level  to  commercial 
purposes  and  of  the  upper  to  the  ordinary  purposes, 
of  traffic.  Stairs  and  inclines  connect  the  two  levels 
at  frequent  intervals;  and  the  street's  possession  of  a 
higher  surface  simplifies  greatly  the  matter  of  bridge 
approaches. 

AVaterfront  commerce,  with  the  slow  processes  of 
loading  and  unloading  and  its  quite  common  need  of 
surface  railroad  tracks,  may  be  a  sad  impediment  to 
normal  street  traffic  when  the  two  are  not  separated. 
Conversely,  the  street  traffic  is  likely  to  be  hardly  less 
of  a  hindrance  to  waterfront  commerce  if  both  try  to 
use  the  same  space.  It  is  because  of  this  that  a  two- 
level  street  pn  the  waterfront  tends  to  increase  of 
efficiency.  It  also  means  enhancement  of  attractive- 
ness. The  buildings  on  the  upper  stage,  looking  over 

67 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

the  lower  level,  are  given  long  views  that  miss  only  the 
sordid  and  slovenly  details  of  commerce;  while  the 
outside  walk  of  the  street's  upper  half  offers  a  vantage 


TWO-LEVEL  STREET  ON  THE  WATERFRONT 
An  example  from  Diisseldorf  of  a  useful  street  construction. 

point  of  never  failing  fascination  for  watching  the 
busy  scenes  below  and  the  play  of  wind  and  light  upon 
the  water.  Finally,  the  view  of  the  city,  from  the 

68 


MAIN"    TRAFFIC    STREETS 

water,  is  made  by  this  construction  much  more 
orderly,  impressive,  and  dignified. 

Nothing  has  been  said  as  to  the  height  of  buildings 
on  main  thoroughfares.  This  is  because  the  width  of 
the  street  should  be  the  factor  determining  the  maxi- 
mum limit  of  height  to  which  buildings  can  be  con- 
structed. If  we  get  the  street  widths,  we  get — or 
should  get — the  building  height  limit  automatically. 
The  usual  European  regulation  is  that  no  building 
shall  exceed  such  height  that  any  part  of  it  shall  cross 
a  line  drawn  from  the  middle  of  the  street  to  the  top 
of  the  building  at  an  angle  of  so  many  degrees.  The 
angle  varies  in  different  cities ;  but  is  most  often  forty- 
five  degrees. 

Just  what  the  number  of  degrees  should  be,  or 
whether  this  is  the  best  method  of  establishing  the 
connection  between  the  width  of  the  street  and  the 
height  of  the  buildings  on  it,  is  not  the  point  here. 
The  important  matter  is  simply  that  the  width  of  the 
street  ought  to  determine  the  height  of  the  building. 
In  most  American  cities  this  would  mean  a  reduction 
from  present  practice.  As,  however,  in  the  business 
sections  of  cities  the  tall  building  is  an  economic  neces- 
sity, or  tends  to  become  one,  the  future  city  plan,  under 
favoring  conditions,  might  properly  include  some 
squares  or  plazas  specifically  designed  to  afford 
proper  sites  for  such  buildings.  It  has  been  suggested 
also  that  towers,  if  so  separated  from  one  another  as 
to  admit  light  and  air  in  ample  quantity,  would  not  be 
objectionable,  though  they  did  exceed  the  street  width. 
We  may  note,  however,  that  from  the  standpoint  of 
artistic  design,  a  proportion  between  the  street's 
width  and  the  construction  along  its  edge  is  essential. 
There  as  elsewhere  is  operative  the  eternal  law  of 
relation  between  solids  and  voids. 

69 


CHAPTEE  VI 

HOW  TO  LESSEN  THE  COST  OF  WIDE  STEEETS 

IF  it  be  necessary  to  the  good  city  plan  that  there 
be  a  considerable  number  of  very  broad  streets,  it  is 
encumbent  upon  us  to  secure  the  desired  thorough- 
fares at  the  least  practicable  cost  to  the  community. 
It  is  true  that  most  streets,  in  American  cities  at  any 
rate,  are  dedicated;  but  there  is  always  the  danger 
that  the  dedicated  street  will  not  be  as  wide  as  the 
anticipated  growth  of  traffic  would  require,  that  the 
landowner  will  not  voluntarily  give  to  it  the  exact 
location  demanded  by  the  comprehensive  plan,  and 
finally  that  some  streets,  or  parts  of  streets,  may  not 
be  dedicated  at  all. 

Out  of  the  consideration  of  these  facts,  two  needs 
become  apparent,  viz. :  An  economical  method  of  pro- 
curing broad  streets  when  they  are  not  a  gift;  and  a 
central  authority  with  official  machinery  enabling  it 
to  represent  efficiently  the  interests  of  the  community 
as  a  whole  in  dealing  with  street  dedications.  With 
reference  to  the  latter  need,  it  is  obvious  that  the 
public  and  the  proprietary  interests  are  not  always 
identical,  and  that,  when  the  proprietor  gives  and  the 
public  receives,  the  former's  personal  and  pecuniary 
point  of  view  is  likely  to  have  a  disproportionate  in- 
fluence, if  there  be  no  ready  means  of  asserting  the 
public's  rights. 

In  this  chapter  we  will  consider  the  measures  which 

70 


HOW  TO  LES3KN  THE  COST  OF  WIDE  STREETS 

liave  been  tried  or  proposed  for  reducing  the  cost  of 
securing  wide  streets.  Then  we  can  take  up  the  second 
need — that  of  central  control — in  the  chapter  that 
follows. 

Within  the  confines  of  built  up  portions  of  the 
town,  the  question  of  procuring  a  wide  street  becomes 
most  often  a  question  of  street  widening.  The  eco- 
nomic problem  is  thus  quite  unlike  that  presented  in 
outlying  areas  where  the  desire  is  to  plat  streets 
broadly  at  the  start.  The  problem  in  the  built  up  part 
of  the  city  is  the  more  difficult ;  each  single  case  is  more 
apparently  urgent,  and  involves  larger  values  than 
does  the  problem  in  outlying  regions. 

The  familiar  European  and  South  American 
method  of  grappling  with  it  is  by  the  measure  known 
as  "excess  condemnation."  Under  this  procedure,  the 
municipality  condemns  not  only  the  property  needed 
to  obtain  the  desired  width  of  street,  but  enough  in 
excess  of  that  amount  to  give  to  it  the  ownership  of 
the  building  plats  abutting  on  the  widened  street.  It 
may  build  upon  these,  or,  after  making  the  street 
improvement,  it  may  sell  them  at  the  enhanced  value 
which  the  improvement  has  given  to  them.  If  it  sells, 
it  secures  to  itself  the  profit  which  its  own  work  has 
created,  and  frequently  this  profit  is  sufficient  to  pay 
the  entire  cost  of  the  improvement.  If  it  builds  it  has 
secured,  perhaps,  good  sites  for  public  structures,  or 
it  may  be  able  to  supplement  a  mere  slum  clearance  by 
good  housing  measures.  Under  either  condition,  it  is 
in  a  position  to  impose  radical  restrictions  on  the 
character  of  the  construction  at  the  street  edge.  There 
is  assurance  that  the  great  public  work  wrhich  it  has 
prosecuted  will  not  be  demeaned  by  unworthy  build- 
ings or  by  stretches  of  property  held  vacant  for 
speculative  purposes. 

71 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

American  cities  have  been  slow  to  adopt  the 
methods  of  excess  condemnation,  because  of  the  risk 
which  it  was  popularly  felt  would  be  run  by  permitting 
a  city  to  "engage  in  the  real  estate  business."  But 
cities  are  in  that  business  all  the  time ;  the  risk  in  this 
phase  of  it  is  really  very  slight ;  and  with  the  gradual 
improvement  of  American  municipal  government  and 
a  more  general  appreciation  of  the  many  advantages 
of  the  procedure,  there  has  developed  a  strongly  de- 
fined trend  toward  its  adoption. 

The  first  American  act  recognizing  the  principle 
was  passed  in  1904,  in  Ohio;  the  next  year  a  similar 
bill  was  added  to  the  code  of  the  public  local  laws  of 
Maryland;  in  1906  Virginia  passed  the  most  general 
of  all  the  acts,  permitting  the  acquisition  of  property 
adjoining  not  merely  parks  but  streets;  and  in  1907 
the  legislature  of  Pennsylvania  enacted  a  law  which 
authorized  the  acquisition  of  property  within  two 
hundred  feet  of  any  park,  parkway,  or  public  play- 
ground.* All  these  acts  give  the  power  to  resell  sub- 
ject to  restrictions  that  will  insure  suitable  develop- 
ment along  the  proposed  improvement,  their  osten- 
sible object  being  "to  preserve  the  view,  appearance, 
light,  air  and  usefulness  thereof."  In  1907,  the  Con- 
necticut legislature  went  further  still,  giving  to  a 
Commission  on  the  City  Plan,  the  creation  of  which 
in  Hartford  it  then  authorized,  the  right  to  resell 
"with  or  without  reservations"  property  not  needed 
for  an  improvement. 

It  would  seem  from  these  facts  that  many  Ameri- 
can cities  are,'  and  more  are  soon  to  be,  in  a  position 
to  avail  themselves  of  a  method  of  street  widening 

*  Andrew  Wright  Crawford  in  Charities  and  the  Commons,  Feb. 
1,  3908.  It  is  by  this  provision  that  the  diagonal  parkway  from  City 
Hall  to  Fairmount  Park,  in  Philadelphia,  is  being  constructed. 

72 


HOW  TO  LESSEN  THE  COST  OF  WIDE  STREETS 

which  has  had  satisfactory  test,  and  been  the  means 

»          v 

of  accomplishing  extraordinary  improvements  in  the 
congested  quarters  of  cities  of  other  nations.  But  the 
plan  has  two  limitations :  Its  dependence  for  practi- 
cability on  its  advantage  in  providing  a  quick  over- 
turn, promptly  reimbursing  the  municipality  for 
monies  expended,  unfits  it  for  use  in  outlying  regions 
where  the  resale  of  the  abutting  property  at  suddenly 
enhanced  prices  might  prove  a  very  long  process.  Sec- 
ond, it  requires  for  execution,  even  under  conditions 
that  are  exceedingly  favorable,  a  large  outlay  or  credit. 
Before  taking  up  the  problem  presented  by  residential 
and  suburban  regions,  it  will  be  well,  therefore,  to 
note  another  method  of  street  widening  in  business 
sections  which  has  had  successful  trial  both  in  Europe 
and  America — as  in  Hamburg,  Germany;  and  in 
Philadelphia. 

It  was  desired  some  years  ago  to  widen  Chestnut, 
AValnut,  and  Arch  Streets,  in  Philadelphia — the  three 
streets  of  the  city  that  were  most  congested  by  busi- 
ness traffic.  To  have  made  the  improvement  by  the 
"excess  condemnation"  method  would  not  only  have 
required  an  outlay  or  credit  of  almost  fabulous  pro- 
portions, but,  during  the  years  which  the  work  must 
have  required,  it  would  have  paralyzed  the  business 
of  the  city.  Accordingly,  there  was  passed  an  ordi- 
nance— in  1884  for  Chestnut  Street,  and  in  1894  for 
Walnut  Street,  the  dates  being  important  as  showing 
that  it  has  now  had  opportunity  to  stand  the  test  of 
time  and  of  many  actions — authorizing  the  Depart- 
ment of  Surveys  "to  revise  the  city  plan"  so  as  to 
widen  the  street  in  question  to  a  certain  specified 
width — as,  for  example,  seventy-two  feet  for  Arch 
Street.  The  second  section  of  these  ordinances  reads : 
"After  the  confirmation  and  establishment  of  sa'id 

73 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

lines,  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  owner  or  builder 
to  erect  any  new  building,  or  to  rebuild  or  alter  the 
front,  or  add  to  the  height  of  any  building  now  erected, 
without  making  it  recede  so  as  to  conform  to  the  line 
established."  The  most  valuable  business  property 
affected  by  these  ordinances  was  that  on  Chestnut 
Street  between  Eighth  and  Sixteenth,  within  which 
distance  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  properties  have 
up  to  this  time  been  changed,  and  in  the  process  set 
back.  In  actions  brought  for  damages,  the  city  con- 
tended that  no  damage  was  occasioned  when  a  prop- 
erty still  had  a  depth  of  a  hundred  feet  or  more,  after 
the  widening  had  taken  place,  with  frontage  not  only 
on  a  widened  street  but  also  on  a  rear  street  or  alley.* 
As  a  result,  the  widening  of  streets  of  enormous  prop- 
erty values  has  now  been  practically  secured,  by  this 
means,  at  almost  no  cost  to  the  municipality. 

A  modification  of  this  method,  to  fit  it  for  use  in 
regions  of  smaller  property  values,  has  been  proposed 
by  Charles  A.  Ferry,  of  New  Haven.  He  suggests  that 
when  newr  lines  are  run  for  a  street,  in  order  that  it 

*  Francis  Fisher  Kane,  an  attorney  of  Philadelphia,  describes  the 
case  of  the  new  Wanamaker  store  as  one  of  the  most  interesting  and 
significant  which  came  up.  This  property,  he  writes,  ' '  has  250  feet  on 
Chestnut  Street  and  Market  Street,  and  489  feet  on  Thirteenth  Street 
and  Juniper  Street,  and  is  the  only  Chestnut  Street  property  covering 
an  entire  block  and  having  four  fronts.  Mr.  Wanamaker 's  witnesses 
claimed  that  the  loss  of  the  strip  of  ground,  5  x  250  feet,  occasioned 
a  damage  amounting  to  $93,950,  which  they  worked  out  at  the  rate  of 
$75.00  a  square  foot.  The  city 's  witnesses  testified  that  no  property  in 
the  city  bore  out  their  theory  more  clearly  than  this,  and  that  the  market 
value  of  such  a  property  with  four  fronts,  484  feet  deep  on  a  60  foot 
wide  street,  was  equal  in  value  to  a  property  489  feet  doep  on  a  street 
50  feet  wide.  Notwithstanding  witnesses  who  testified  to  the  contrary, 
Mr.  Gibbons,  of  the  city  solicitor's  office,  won  the  case,  and  the  jury 
took  the  city's  view  and  made  no  award."  It  should  be  added,  how- 
ever, that  not  all  the  cases  have  been  equally  successful,  as  some  owners 
were  allowed  nominal  damages. 

74 


HOW   TO  LESSEN  THE  COST  OF  WIDE  STREETS 

may  be  widened,  there  be  a  separate  award  for  dam- 
ages for  land  and  for  buildings  on  the  land.  The  city 
would  then  pay  for  the  land  and  become  the  owner  of 
it,  while  allowing  the  property  owner  to  retain  for  a 
time  the  possession  of  his  building  if  this  projected 
over  the  line,  on  the  payment  of  an  annual  rental  that 
would  be  a  certain  per  cent  upon  the  land  damage 
awarded.  If  the  building  were  of  small  value,  it  might 
be  worth  while  to  move  it  back  or  to  rebuild  the  front, 
at  the  city's  expense;  if  alterations  were  made,  or  a 
new  structure  erected,  the  city  wrould  require  that  it 
conform  to  the  new  line.  Thus  in  time  the  street  would 
be  widened  at  a  nominal  cost. 

To  both  of  these  plans  there  is  the  objection  that 
many  years  are  likely  to  elapse  before  the  improve- 
ment is  complete,  and  that  in  the  meantime  the  street 
presents  a  ragged  appearance.  This  appearance  is  not 
different,  however,  from  that  which  the  street  so 
familiarly  has  during  the  less  desirable  process  of 
narrowing  it,  when  buildings  that  had  stood  back  are 
being  brought  to  the  front  of  the  lot  line.  Moreover, 
the  plans  offer  such  economic  advantages  as  to  make 
possible  great  public  improvements  which,  however 
necessary,  could  hardly  be  compassed  by  other  means ; 
and  it  is  well  to  remind  ourselves  that  in  the  long  life 
of  a  big  city — and  these  plans  are  applicable  only  in 
growing  communities — the  local  discomforts  of  a 
doze'n  years  or  so  are  a  relatively  insignificant  matter 
if  they  lead  to  permanent  betterment. 

But  still  another  method  of  street  widening  is  avail- 
able, where  there  is  continuous  construction  at  the 
street 's  edge.  It  has  less  to  recommend  it,  for  it  offers 
no  addition  of  light  and  air,  making  concession  only  to 
traffic.  This  consists  in  carrying  the  sidewalks  be- 
neath the  second  floor  of  the  buildings  by  means  of 

75 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

arcades,  as  on  the  Rue  de  Rivoli,  in  Paris.  Then  the 
roadway  can  be  widened  to  what  was  the  whole  width 
of  the  original  street,  while  the  only  property  absorbed 
is  that  which  is  on  the  street  level,  of  just  the  width 
desired. 

With  reference  to  platting  new  streets,  or  even  to 
widening  old  streets,  where  values  are  less  high,  the 
buildings  detached,  and  more  or  less  property  is 
vacant,  there  are  yet  other  ways  of  reducing  costs. 
For  one  thing,  it  seems  not  unfair,  as  suggested  in  a 
previous  chapter,  to  meet  some  of  the  expense  from, 
the  general  tax,  instead  of  putting  it  all  on  the  front- 
age. The  purpose  of  the  improvement  is  primarily  to 
serve  the  community  as  a  whole.  In  these  regions  it 
is  not  the  traffic  originating  on  the  street  which  needs 
the  additional  space.  Indeed,  to  some  extent  the  abut- 
ting property  holders  actually  suffer  annoyance 
through  the  increased  traffic  which  added  acc'omnioda- 
tions  invite.  That  they  should  pay,  however,  for  a 
little  more  street  width  than  they  would  have  had  to 
do,  had  not  that  particular  street  been  chosen  as  a 
traffic  highway,  is  probably  just,  for  the  improvement 
bestows  on  the  property  a  speculative  value  through 
the  possibility  that  business  will  follow  the  enlarged 
tide  of  travel.  But  that  a  share  of  the  added  cost 
should  be  borne  by  the  whole  community,  and  perhaps 
also  by  posterity — by  means  of  a  bond  issue — is  also 
fair.  It  may  be  remarked,  however,  that  this  plan, 
while  lessening  the  burden  for  abutting  property,  does 
not  reduce  the  gross  cost. 

There  has  already  been  suggestion,  in  preceding 
chapters,  of  another  way  by  which  cost  can  be  reduced 
in  sections  not  closely  built.  This  is  by  securing  an 
easement  over  those  front  gardens  which,  in  the  kind 
of  area  now  under  consideration,  will  be  an  almost 

76 


HOW  TO  LESSEN  THE  COST  OF  WIDE  STREETS 

universal  accompaniment  of  such  construction  as  there 
may  be.  Perhaps  the  method  cannot  be  described 
more  clearly  than  by  giving  a  concrete  example  of  it. 
Sixteenth  Street  in  Washington  has  an  apparent  width 
of  eighty  feet.  It  is  really  platted,  however,  twice  that 
width,  from  building  line  to  building  line,  and  if  the 
time  should  ever  come  when  business  invaded  the 
street  and  the  traffic  grew  to  large  proportions,  the 
street  could  be  given  its  true  breadth — seemingly 
"widened,"  that  is  to  say,  to  one  hundred  and  sixty 
feet — without  condemning  any  property.  Meantime, 
as  a  fine  residence  street  without  heavy  traffic,  and 
with  no  commercial  business,  Sixteenth  Street  is  lined 
with  houses  which  have  before  them  lawns  and  gar- 
dens forty  feet  or  more  in  depth.  On  either  side  of 
the  street,  the  householders  are  at  liberty  to  fence 
these  gardens,  and  use  them  almost  as  if  they  were 
owned  in  fee  simple,  save  only  that  no  store,  shop  or 
other  structure  can  be  built  upon  the  front  forty  feet 
of  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the  residents  are  pro- 
tected from  the  danger  that  some  grasping  individual 
will  thrust  a  building  out  to  the  present  sidewalk  line, 
interrupting  the  view  and  breaking  the  continuity  of 
gardens — a  protection  that  is  no  slight  compensation. 
And  that  it  may  be  seen  that  the  law  imposes  no  undue 
hardship,  let  it  be  observed  that  if  an  owner  desires 
to  put  in  a  store  before  the  city  is  ready  to  widen  the 
street,  or  his  neighbors  to  give  up  their  front  gardens, 
he  can  do  so,  provided  he  does  not  advance  beyond  the 
general  building  line.  The  course  he  usually  follows 
is  to  extend  the  sidewalk  paving  in  front  of  his  prop- 
erty quite  to  the  building  line,  sometimes  using  the 
space  for  outdoor  stands,  or  show  cases,  to  attract 
trade ;  and  perhaps  erecting  light  awnings  over  it. 
Under  a  like  regulation  the  alleys  of  Washington. 

77 


THH  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

are  being  transformed  into  minor  streets.  The  law 
reads,  in  part,  "That  no  dwelling  house  hereafter 
erected  or  placed  in  any  alley  shall  in  any  case  be 
located  less  than  twenty  feet  back,  clear  of  the  center 
line  of  such  alley."  And  a  law  of  Pennsylvania  pro- 
vides, as  does  the  law  in  other  countries,  that  cities 
may  lay  out  streets  in  anticipation  of  future  needs  and 
yet  postpone  entering  upon  the  land  for  construction 
or  for  opening  it  to  the  public.  Until  the  city  does  so 
enter  on  the  land,  the  owner  has  the  free  use  of  it. 
^'He  receives  payment  only  when  the  opening  takes 
place;  but  if  in  the  interim  he  shall  have  erected  any 
structure  within  the  limits  of  the  proposed  street,  he 
will  receive  no  compensation  therefor  when  the  street 
is  opened.  .  .  .  The  procedure  is  to  establish  a  build- 
ing line,  set  back  a  certain  distance  from  the  street 
line,  paying  damages  only  when  the  power  to  prevent 
the  erection  of  a  new  building  is  actually  exercised." 

That  such  measures  mean  a  great  cheapening  in  the 
cost  of  street  widening  operations  must  be  perfectly 
evident.  Very  often,  when  a  street  is  mainly  lined  by 
residences,  most  of  the  abutters  would  welcome  the 
establishment  of  a  building  line  that  would  protect 
them  from  inconsiderate  neighbors.  This  is  shown  by 
the  readiness  with  which  people  pay  high  prices  for 
residence  property  in  neighborhoods  where  land  com- 
panies have  imposed  such  a  restriction.  At  least,  it 
is  conceivable  that  abutters  would  frequently  be  wil- 
ling to  waive  claims  for  damages.  Mr.  Olmsted  has 
said,f  in  discussing  this  matter:  "When  the  actual 
physical  widening  of  the  street  takes  place,  through 
absorbing  the  restricted  zones  on  each  side  of  it,  the 

*  Frederick  Law  Olmsted  in  The  Survey,  Feb.  4,  1911. 
t  Frederick  Law  Olmsted  in  his  Report  to  the  Pittsburgh  Civic  Com- 
mission, 1911,  on  "Main  Thoroughfares  and  the  Down  Town  District." 

78 


HOW  TO  LESSEN  THE  COST  OF  WIDE  STREETS 

damages  for  land  taking  will  be  comparatively  small, 
because  at  that  time  most  of  the  abutters  will  want 
nothing  so  much  as  that  very  widening,  if  only  to  bring 
the  sidewalks  in  contact  with  the  fronts  of  their  build- 
ings. But  regardless  of  its  clear  financial  advantages 
to  the  city,  in  reducing  its  total  payments  for  street 
widening  and  especially  in  distributing  the  burden  of 
that  cost  over  a  long  period  without  running  up  a  large 
bonded  indebtedness  and  interest  charges,  the  funda- 
mental argument  for  this  method  of  procedure  is  that 
it  avoids  the  absolute  dead  loss  to  the  whole  commu- 
nity resulting  from  the  destruction  of  valuable  build- 
ings. ' ' 

There  is  another  way  still  of  curbing  the  cost  of 
securing  wide  streets.  This  is  by  establishing  building 
zones.  For  it  is  the  primary  function  of  these  to  set 
bounds  to  the  degree  of  intensiveness  with  which  the 
land  can  be  developed.  Speculative  inflation  of  real 
estate  values,  due  to  " sweating  the  land,"  or  to  the 
possibility  of  doing  this,  is  therefore  eliminated. 
When  land  for  street  use  has  to  be  purchased,  the 
removal  of  this  factor  may  prove  of  considerable 
moment.  Nor  does  the  beneficent  influence  of  the  zone 
system,  as  respects  the  acquirement  of  wide  thorough- 
fares, stop  there.  As  already  pointed  out,  the  setting 
of  a  definite  limit  to  the  use  of  land  in  any  particular 
part  of  the  city,  makes  it  possible  to  calculate  pretty 
closely  just  how  wide  the  streets  need  to  be.  Even  with 
main  highways  it  ceases  to  be  necessary  to  add  so  very 
much  merely  for  good  measure. 

Since  the  zone  system,  which  has  been  so  greatly 
developed  in  Germany  and  so  little  in  the  United 
States,  has  thus  an  economic  value  to  cities  in  facili- 
tating the  development  of  a  rational  street  system,  it 
be  well  to  note  briefly  two  of  its  other  advantages. 

79 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

As  to  the  one,  Mr.  Marsh,  in  his  * '  Introduction  to  City 
Planning,"  goes  so  far  as  to  say  of  it:  "The  most 
important  part  of  city  planning,  as  far  as  the  future 
health  of  the  city  is  concerned,  is  the  districting  of  the 
city  into  zones  or  districts,  in  which  buildings  may  be 
a  certain  number  of  stories  or  feet  in  height  and  cover 
a  specified  proportion  of  the  site,  that  is,  the  determin- 
ing of  the  cubage  or  volume  of  the  buildings."  The 
official  Congestion  Committee  of  New  York  included 
this  suggestion  among  its  recommendations  of  1911 ; 
and  one  better  understands  the  statement  on  reading, 
in  one  of  the  leaflets  issued  by  the  preceding  voluntary 
Committee  oji  Congestion  of  Population  in  New  York, 
the  assertions :  ' '  The  high  cost  of  land  is  the  first  and 
inevitable  cause  of  congestion.  To  pay  a  net  return 
of  eight  per  cent  on  land  worth  $2  per  square  foot, 
with  a  density  of  250  per  acre,  each  family  of  five  must 
pay,  for  the  use  of  the  land  alone,  $121.96.  .  .  .  Un- 
skilled wage-earners  cannot  be  properly  housed  on 
land  worth  over  $1  per  square  foot. ' '  As  to  the  other 
advantage,  it  is  necessary  only  to  suggest  with  what 
economy  and  efficiency  a  section  of  the  city  could  be 
developed  for  manufacture,  with  reference  to  trans- 
portation by  rail  and  water  as  well  as  by  streets,  if  it 
were  known  that  it  was  to  be  always  devoted  to  that 
purpose  only. 

The  regulations  under  which  the  cities  of  Germany 
have  developed  the  zone  system  are  simple;  but  they 
are  not  uniform,  and  would  be  very  long  to  quote.  The 
city  cuts  its  area  into  sections,  irregular  in  size  and 
outline,  conditions  of  site  and  of  previous  development 
largely  determining  these  matters.  The  Graded  Build- 
ing Code  of  Munich,  for  example,  has  authorized  nine 
grades  of  buildings;  while  the  regulations  of  Du'ssel- 
dorf  recognize  nine  classes,  or  sections,  and  then 

80 


HOW  TO  LESSEN  THE  COST  OF  WIDE  STREETS 


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81 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

subdivide  some  of  these  three  or  four  times.  The 
city  itself  is  still  further  subdivided,  sections  of  each 
class  being  located  in  different  parts  of  the  city.  In 
Frankfort,  there  is  the  simple  arrangement  of  the 
Inner  City  and  the  Outer  City,  the  latter  having  an, 
Inner  Zone  and  an  Outer  Zone,  each  of  these  being 
then  divided  into  Residence  Section,  Mixed  Section,, 
and  Factory  Section. 

In  the  United  States,  distinct  building  zones  as- 
regards  the  regulations  for  fire-proofing  are  usually 
recognized.  There  has  been  also  interesting  legal 
recognition  of  the  principle  in  the  creation — as  in  Los 
Angeles— of  an  Industrial  District  and  a  Residence 
District,  with  the  prohibition  of  factory  construction 
in  the  latter,  while  the  determination  of  zones  for 
buildings  of  different  heights  and  areas  has  stood  the 
test  of  constitutionality  in  Boston  and  in  Baltimore.* 
A  recommendation  that  the  plan  be  applied  to  New 
York  is  made  by  the  New  York  City  Commission  on 
Congestion  of  Population,  as  we  have  noted  above.f 
Finally,  voluntary  restriction  on  the  part  of  persons 
who  are  developing  large  tracts  of  land  is  as  well 
known  as  it  is  significant.  An  advertisement,  for  ex- 

*  In  Boston  two  districts  have  been  established,  and  the  division  of 
the  city  in  accordance  therewith  has  been  upheld  by  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  State  and  of  the  United  States. 

t  Report  of  1911.  Though  details  of  the  recommendation  are  hardly 
pertinent  to  the  subject  of  the  present  chapter,  it  may  be  worth  while 
to  note,  briefly,  that  the  committee 's  proposal  is  that  no  building  of 
any  sort  in  Manhattan  below  181st  Street  shall  exceed  a  cubage  of  174 
times  the  area  of  the  lot,  and  in  the  rest  of  New  York  a  cubage  of  120 
times  the  lot  area;  and  that  no  factory  or  loft  building  shall  have  a 
cubage  exceeding  132  times  the  area  of  the  lot.  No  tenement  below 
181st  Street,  it  is  proposed,  shall  exceed  four  stories  in  height  unless  it 
be  fireproof;  outside  of  that  district  it  shall  not  exceed  four  stories  any- 
way, and  for  outlying  regions  the  suggestion  is  a  three-story  limit. 
Nowhere  shall  the  tenement  be  higher  than  the  widest  street  on  which  it 
faces. 

82 


HOW  TO  LESSEN  THE  COST  OF  WIDE  STREETS 

ample,  observed  on  a  street  car,  reads:  "New  high- 
class  restricted  residence  park  on.  .  .  .  No  flats,  no 
factories,  no  saloons." 

Most  German  municipalities  own  vast  areas  of 
building  land.  A  dominant  purpose  is  to  prevent 
injurious  inflation  of  prices;  but  clearly  that  owner- 
ship, for  which  American  cities  seem  not  yet  ready  on 
any  large  scale,  is  a  very  direct  way  of  cheapening  the 
cost  of  street  building,  and  of  providing  an  authorita- 
tive central  control  of  street  platting. 

The  latter  point  is  yet  to  be  considered.  Here  we 
have  only  to  note,  in  summary  of  this  chapter,  that  the 
early  laying  out  of  main  traffic  streets  on  an  ample 
scale,  with  all  its  negative  and  positive  advantages, 
does  not  involve,  if  carefully  done,  an  expense  that  is 
prohibitive.  This  means  not  less  to  the  property 
holder  than  to  the  city  at  large.  Aside  from  its  nar- 
rower economic  aspects,  the  fact  makes  possible  the 
rational  planning  of  streets. 


83 


CHAPTER  VII 

PROVISION  OF  CENTRAL  CONTROL 

COMING  now  to  the  matter  of  central  control,  which 
has  been  named  as  an  essential  desideratum  in  the 
platting  of  main  highways,  there  are  several  methods 
by  which  it  can  be  exercised.  These  may  be  effective 
without  the  necessity  that  the  cities  themselves  shall 
be  owners  of  the  land  to  be  divided — as  to  such  large 
extent  they  now  are  in  Germany.  It  is  fortunate  that 
is  so,  since  American  cities  are  not  prepared  to  buy 
large  tracts  of  suburban  property. 

Starting  with  the  assumption  that  for  the  good  of 
the  community  the  platting  must  be  done  from  a  com- 
munity standpoint,  rather  than  from  that  of  the 
individual,  there  are  two  theories  as  to  the  best  method 
of  securing  such  a  viewpoint.  One  is  that  the  work 
can  best  be  done  by  a  local  commission,  usually  made 
up  in  part  of  responsible  officials;  the  other  is  that  it 
is  likely  to  be  done  most  wisely  by  outsiders,  who  are 
free  from  local  prejudice,  preconception,  and  interest, 
and  who  are  able  to  see  the  problem  with  fresh  eyes. 

Experience  has  revealed,  however,  that  it  is  not  so 
hard  to  get  a  fairly  good  city  plan  put  upon  paper 
as  it  is  to  secure  faithful  adherence  to  the  plan  through 
the  long  course  of  years  which  must  elapse  before  it 
can  be  transferred  from  paper  to  fact.  This  desirable 
adherence,  one  must  hasten  to  add,  is  to  the  true  spirit 
•of  the  plan  rather  than  to  its  letter.  There  will  almost 

84 


PROVISION  OF  CENTRAL  CONTROL 

surely  be  need  of  modifications  in  it  now  and  then. 
The  best  planner  cannot  foresee  every  contingency. 
He  does  not  pretend  to  infallibility.  The  virtue  of 
city  planning  lies  not  in  its  certainty  of  meeting  all 
future  needs,  but  in  the  assurance  that  it  will  wisely 
meet  a  good  many  of  them.  Even  with  a  plan,  there 
will  have  to  be  adjustment  and  readjustment,  remodel- 
ing and  moulding  to  fit  it  for  new  conditions.  To  make 
sure  that  this  shall  be  done  with  far-seeing  vision  and 
with  the  interests  of  the  whole  community  at  heart  is 
what  complicates  the  problem.  It  usually,  for  instance, 
would  not  be  safe  to  leave  the  control  of  street  platting 
wholly  in  the  hands  of  a  body  of  which  the  complete 
membership  was  constantly  changing. 

In  reviewing  various  schemes  devised  to  meet  these 
conditions,  one  gets  the  impression  that  cities,  both  in 
Europe  and  America,  are  still  at  the  experimental 
stage  as  regards  the  control  of  street  platting.  Very 
likely  they  are;  very  probably  the  perfect  machinery 
for  the  planning  and  building  of  cities  lias  not  yet  been 
worked  out.*  But  because  it  would  have  to  be  nicely 
adjusted  to  local  administrative  procedure,  and  be- 
cause this  procedure  is  various,  it  is  altogether 
unlikely  that  any  one  scheme  will  ever  be  devised 
which  could  be  suitable  for  every  case.  Hence  there 
is  need  here  only  to  touch  on  the  plans,  that  their 
tendency  and  general  principle  may  be  observed. 

*  The  National  Conference  on  City  Planning,  in  America,  has  given 
serious  consideration  to  this  and  kindred  topics,  and  at  the  Third  Annual 
Conference  (Philadelphia,  May,  1911)  the  Committee  on  Legal  and 
Administrative  Methods,  Andrew  Wright  Crawford,  Chairman,  presented 
drafts  of  several  acts  that  might  be  uniformly  adopted  by  the  several 
States  to  the  great  simplification  of  intelligent  city  planning  procedure. 
The  report  which  introduced  and  explained  the  principles  of  these  acts  is 
given  in  the  Appendix. 

85 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

T.  C.  Horsfall,*  in  a  long  chapter  on  the  General 
Building  Law  of  Saxony,  gives  at  length  the  sections 
referring  to  town  planning.  These  require  special 
attention  to  the  following,  among  other,  points.  They 
may  be  quoted  here  as  seeming  to  offer,  on  the 
authority  of  German  students  of  the  subject,  a  sum- 
mary of  the  desirable  scope  and  temper  of  town  plan- 
ning operations  as  centrally  controlled: 

"  (a)  The  position  of  the  blocks  of  building,  as  well 
as  of  the  lines  of  streets  and  the  building-lines,  must 
be  adapted  to  the  configuration  of  the  land,  and  must 
be  such  that  an  adequate  supply  of  sunshine  in  the 
rooms  occupied  is  secured. 

11  (b)  The  dimensions  of  the  various  blocks  of  build- 
ing must  be  such  as  to  allow  of  the  proper  utilization 
of  the  ground  for  building. 

"  (c)  The  width  of  streets  and  footpaths  is  decided 
by  the  requirements  of  local  traffic,  and  must  be  suit- 
ably graduated  in  accordance  with  the  nature  of  the 
streets  as  main  streets,  by-streets,  or  streets  used  only 
for  dwellings.  In  the  case  of  streets  of  detached  or 
semi-detached  buildings,  where  there  is  no  proper 
through  traffic,  the  part  of  the  road  used  for  vehicles 
need  not  exceed  a  width  of  twenty-six  feet.  In  the  case 
of  streets  for  which  through  traffic  may  be  expected 
eventually,  especially  tram-lines,  and  a  widening  of 
the  street  must  be  anticipated,  there  must  be  front 
gardens  of  suitable  depth  on  both  sides.  Private 
roads,  which  give  access  to  the  backs  of  buildings  for 
several  blocks,  must  not  have  a  less  width  than  nine- 
teen and  a  half  feet.  .  .  . 

"(d)  Gradients  in  the  streets  must  be  distributed 
as  evenly  as  possible;  heavy  gradients,  deep  cuttings 

*"The  Improvement  of  the  Dwellings  and  Surroundings  of  the 
People:  The  Example  of  Germany,"  by  T.  C.  Horsfall. 

86 


PROVISION  OF  CENTRAL  CONTROL 

and  embankments,  as  well  as  inordinately  long 
straight  lines  of  streets,  must  be  avoided  as  much  as 
possible. 

"  (e)  In  determining  the  directions  of  streets  care 
must  be  taken  to  provide  short  and  convenient  connec- 
tions between  streets  and  with  the  chief  centres  of 
traffic. 

"  (/)  Open  spaces  and  public  shrubberies  must  be 
so  arranged  in  respect  of  size,  position  and  number,  as 
to  be  useful  in  relation  both  to  convenience  of  traffic 
and  to  general  welfare.  Sites  for  churches  and  school 
buildings,  as  well  as  public  playgrounds  and  recreation 
grounds,  must  be  provided  in  sufficient  number. 

11  (g]  In  deciding  what  shall  be  the  kind  of  building 
allowed,  and  as  to  whether  factories  and  workshops 
shall  be  allowed,  the  existing  character  of  the  district, 
or  part  of  a  district,  and  its  needs  must  be  taken  into 

account. 

********** 

"The  building  plan,  or  building-line  plan,  when  it 
has  been  once  decided  on,  is  authoritative  in  relation 
to  all  buildings  in  the  district  to  which  it  applies.  But 
the  owner  of  land  which  the  plan  shows  to  be  intended 
for  use  for  public  traffic,  may  use  it  till  he  has  to 
surrender  it  to  the  community,  for  purposes  other 
than  building,  and  may  enclose  it  with  a  suitable 
fence.  .  .  . 

' '  A  plat  of  land,  not  yet  built  on,  which  is  shown  by 
the  plan  to  be  intended  for  use  as  a  street  or  square, 
cannot  be  used  for  building  purposes,  except  that 
eaves,  balconies  and  other  projections  of  buildings 
may  be  allowed  to  overhang  it.  The  erection  of  tem- 
porary buildings  is,  however,  permissible,  but  the 
owner  must  remove  them,  and  any  fences  which  he 
may  have  put  up  after  the  fixing  of  the  building  plan,, 

87 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

at  his  own  expense,  so  soon  as  the  land  is  needed  for 
use  as  a  street  or  public  square." 

In  addition  to  these  and  other  regulations  the 
Saxon  act  has  given  to  the  Building  Police,*  upon 
whom  is  placed  the  responsibility  for  the  making  and 
carrying  out  of  town  plans,  the  valuable  and  radical 
right  to  expropriate  lands  and  redistribute  them.  Sec- 
tion 54  reads, 

"If  the  proper  use,  for  building  purposes,  of  land 
which  is  within  the  scope  of  a  building  plan  is  pre- 
vented, or  made  very  difficult,  by  the  position,  form, 
or  size  of  the  plats  of  land  or  parts  of  the  plats  of 
land,  then  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  convenient 
sites  for  buildings,  a  repartition  of  the  area  can  be 
made,  even  against  the  will  of  the  owners,  by  an 
alteration  of  the  boundaries  of  the  plats,  or  by  redis- 
tribution, in  case  the  new  arrangement  is  in  the  public 
interest,  and  a  request  to  that  effect  is  made  to  the 
Building-Police  Authority  either  (a)  by  the  Town 
Council,  or  (b)  by  more  than  half  of  the  interested 
owners  of  land  who  together  own  more  than  half  the 
land  in  question. ' ' 

Section  58,  in  further  elaboration,  reads : 

"The  plats  of  ground  belonging  to  all  the  owners 
concerned  are  to  be  thrown  together,  and  the  public 
roads  which  the  new  building  plan  makes  unnecessary, 
are  to  be  included.  From  this  mass  the  land  shown 
l>y  the  building  plan  to  be  intended  for  the  future 
public  roads  must  first  be  separated,  and  the  building 
land  which  remains  must  then  be  distributed  in  such 
a  way  that  each  owner  of  a  plat  or  plats  of  land  shall 
have  a  share  of  the  total  value  corresponding  to  the 
share  which  he  had  in  the  whole  amount  of  land  before 

*  Originally  the  Building  Police  were  charged  only  with  securing 
stability  of  construction  and  protection  against  fire. 


PROVISION  OF  CENTRAL  CONTROL 

redistribution.  The  community  must  have  land  for 
public  roads  assigned  to  it  to  replace  the  roads  which 
were  absorbed.  In  fixing  the  values  on  which  the 
redistribution  plan  is  based,  and  which  are  to  be  fixed 
with  the  help  of  experts,  all  material  and  legal  con- 
ditions must  be  taken  duly  into  account.  For  each  of 
the  plats  of  land  suitable  for  building  purposes  one  or 
more  plats  of  land,  as  far  as  possible  in  the  same  place, 
must  be  given.  Plats  of  land  with  buildings  on  them, 
as  a  rule,  subject  to  rectification  of  their  boundaries, 
are  to  be  restored  to  the  persons  who  have  hitherto 
owned  them.  .  .  .  Unavoidable  differences  of  value 
between  the  earlier  plats  and  those  received  to  replace 
them  can  be  settled  in  money." 

The  official  circular  which  was  sent  out  with  the 
English  town-planning  act  described  that  act's  purpose 
as  "to  ensure,  by  means  of  schemes  which  may  be 
prepared  either  by  local  authorities  or  landowners, 
that,  in  future,  land  in  the  vicinity  of  towns  shall  be 
developed  in  such  a  way  as  to  secure  proper  sanitary 
conditions,  amenity  and  convenience."  The  circular 
added  that  "hitherto  the  conflicting  interests  of  dif- 
ferent owners,  and  the  absence  of  any  power  in  the 
local  authority  to  guide  and  control  development 
according  to  the  circumstances  and  requirements  of 
particular  cases,  has  resulted  to  a  considerable  extent 
in  the  development  of  estates,  whether  large  or  small, 
with  a  sole  regard  to  the  immediate  interests  of  the 
particular  estate  and  without  regard  to  the  amenity 
and  convenience  of  neighboring  lands."  There  was 
no  wish,  authorities  explained,  to  harass  individuals, 
hamper  enterprise,  or  to  go  against  the  interest  of  any 
individual  owner  except  in  so  far  as  the  greater  inter- 
ests of  the  community  made  this  necessary. 

Under    this    English    act,    the     (national)     Local 

89 


THE    WIDTH   AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

Government  Board  is  the  arbiter.  It  may  authorize 
the  council  of  any  borough  or  district  to  prepare  a 
town-planning  scheme  "with  reference  to  any  land 
within  or  in  the  neighborhood  of  this  area,  if  the 
authority  satisfy  the  Board  that  there  is  a  prima  facie 
case  for  making  such  a  scheme;  or  may  authorize  a 
local  authority  (i.e.,  a  council)  to  adopt,  with  or  with- 
out any  modifications,  any  such  scheme  proposed  by 
all  or  any  of  the  owners."  The  scheme  prepared,  or 
adopted,  by  councils  must  be  approved  by  the  Local 
Government  Board  before  it  can  take  effect,  and  the 
approval  can  only  follow  Parliamentary  hearings,  or 
the  opportunity  therefor  and  for  objection.  The 
scheme  subsequently  may  be  varied  or  revoked  by  the 
Local  Government  Board,  if  sufficient  cause  be  shown ; 
and  should  local  authorities  fail  to  prepare  schemes, 
or  to  adopt  schemes  that  ought  to  be  adopted,  they 
can  be  ordered  to  act,  or  the  Board  itself  can  effect- 
ively adopt  a  scheme.  The  significant  thing  is  that 
the  plan  is  made  locally,  perhaps  even  by  the  land- 
owners, and  that  it  then  must  be  passed  upon  by  a 
central  and  official  body  representing  the  interests  of 
the  community. 

Further,  the  act  follows  the  German  precedent  in 
permitting  a  town-planning  scheme  to  limit  the 
number  of  buildings  which  may  be  erected  per  acre, 
and  to  designate  the  character  and  possible  height  of 
those  buildings.  It  further  provides,  in  so  doing,  that 
these  limitations  shall  not  entitle  the  owner  of  the 
property  to  compensation  where  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board,  having  regard  to  the  nature  and  location 
of  the  land  affected,  consider  such  limitation  to  be 
reasonable  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  amenity  of 
the  section  which  is  included  in  the  scheme. 

In  the  United  States,  it  is  customary  to  require 

90 


PROVISION  OF  CENTRAL  CONTROL 

landowners  to  file  maps  of  their  subdivisions,  and  to 
secure  the  approval  of  their  plans  by  the  city  council 
or  some  other  designated  body — as  the  Board  of  Street 
Commissioners  (Boston),  the  Board  of  Public  Im- 
provements (St.  Louis),*  the  Topographical  Survey 
Commission  (Baltimore).  The  obtaining  of  this 
approval,  however,  is  too  often  little  more  than  a 
matter  of  form — especially  when  it  is  left  to  a  council 
so  concerned  about  other  matters  as  to  give  only  per- 
functory attention  to  land  development  projects.  A 
further  weakness  of  the  arrangement  is  the  city's 
difficulty  in  exercising  control  beyond  the  city  limits. 

Various  ways  of  overcoming  this  weakness  have 
been  tried.  Wisconsin  adopted  a  law  in  1909,  extend- 
ing the  council's  authority  in  this  matter  to  lands 
lying  within  one  and  a  half  miles  of  the  city  limits. 
Michigan  gives  to  its  cities  control  for  two  miles 
beyond  their  limits.  In  the  cities  of  some  States  an 
extension  of  municipal  authority  over  what  is  called 
the  metropolitan  area — practically  a  consolidation  of 
separate  outlying  communities  with  the  main  city  for 
the  comprehensive  planning  of  public  works — has  been 
effective.  The  commonest  method  in  the  United  States, 
however,  is  to  push  the  city  limits  out  so  far  as  to 
embrace  a  surrounding  belt  of  partly  agricultural  land. 
Various  cities  then  adopt  what  is  called  "the  city 
map, ' '  requiring  that  new  streets  be  platted  in  accord- 
ance therewith. 

Theoretically,  this  is  an  admirable  procedure;  but 
it  involves  large  expense  for  police  and  fire  protection, 
lighting,  etc.,  and  practical  difficulty  has  been  found 
in  enforcing  adherence  to  the  map.  Landowners  are 
too  likely  to  lay  out  private  streets  and  sell  lots  to 

*  Legislation  transferred  this  authority  in  St.  Louis  in  the  spring 
of  1911. 

91 


THE   WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

unsuspecting  purchasers  who  discover,  too  late,  that 
the  street  cannot  be  publicly  accepted  because  of  non- 
conformity with  the  map.  To  obviate  such  a  condition, 
some  municipalities  prohibit  the  laying  of  water  mains 
or  sewers  on  non-conforming  streets,  and  Philadelphia 
authorities  have  refused  to  give  lines  and  grades  to 
builders  on  such  streets.  But  the  constitutionality  of 
these  acts  is  somewhat  in  doubt,  at  this  time. 

Hartford,  Conn.,  has  a  Commission  on  the  City 
Plan,  authorized  by  State  law.  It  is  composed  of  the 
Mayor,  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Street  Commis- 
sioners, the  President  of  the  Board  of  Park  Commis- 
sioners, the  City  Engineer,  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Aldermen,  a  member  of  the  Common  Council — the  two 
latter  appointed  by  their  respective  boards — and  two 
citizens,  neither  of  whom  shall  hold  any  other  munici- 
pal office,  and  who  are  appointed  by  the  Mayor.  The 
Commission  serves  without  pay,  but  it  is  empowered 
to  employ  experts,  as  it  has  done,  and  its  expenses 
are  paid.  Through  the  Commission,  the  city  may  take 
property  by  condemnation ;  and  may  resell,  as  we  have 
stated,  that  which  is  not  needed  for  an  improvement. 
The  law  requires  that  "all  questions  concerning  the 
location  of  any  public  building,  esplanade,  boulevard, 
parkway,  street,  highway,  square,  or  park  shall  be 
referred  to  the  Commission  by  the  Common  Council, 
"for  consideration  and  report  before  final  action  is 
taken  on  such  location."  Various  other  matters 
"may"  be  referred  to  it. 

The  New  York  Committee  on  Congestion,  in  the 
carefully  prepared  report  which  it  brought  in  just  as 
this  chapter  was  being  written  (March,  1911)  recom- 
mended, among  other  things, 

' '  The  preparation  by  the  city,  through  the  Board  of 

92 


PROVISION  OF  CENTRAL  CONTROL 

Estimate  and  Apportionment,  of  a  plan  for  the  entire 
city,  which  shall  include  the  following  items : 

"(1)  The  restriction  of  factories  to  certain  dis- 
tricts. 

"(2)  The  provision  of  transit  lines  and  means  of 
carrying  freight  upon  the  basis  of  such  a  districting 
of  the  city. 

"  (3)  The  determination  of  the  main  lines  of  streets 
and  secondary  streets  as  suggested  by  Mr.  Nelson  P. 
Lewis,  Chief  Engineer  of  the  Board  of  Estimate  and 
Apportionment. 

11  (4)  Provision  of  sewers  and  methods  of  sewerage 
disposal  and  substructures  for  pipes. 

"(5)  Provision  of  adequate  sites  for  parks  and 
playgrounds  and  recreation  centers  and  municipal 
buildings  of  various  sorts. 

"(6)  Acquisition  of  adequate  land  by  the  city  for 
all  public  purposes." 

This  is  an  interesting  statement,  not  only  for  its 
proposal  that  a  city  plan  be  prepared  by  an  existing 
official  body,  but  for  its  enumeration  of  what  such  a 
plan  might  properly  include. 

In  December,  1909,  the  Mayor  of  Chicago  appointed 
a  Chicago  Plan  Commission.  With  its  very  large 
membership,  however,  its  function  was  to  be  advisory. 
Buffalo,  Seattle,  Los  Angeles,  Newark,  N.  J.,  St.  Louis 
and  Salem,  Mass.,  are  among  the  representative  other 
cities  which  have  created  city  plan  commissions, 
made  up  of  local  residents.  These  commissions  are 
designed  to  act  for  the  most  part  in  an  advisory 
capacity,  but  generally  their  membership  wisely  in- 
cludes, ex-officio,  some  members  of  the  city  govern- 
ment. 

In  these  cities,  and  in  other  cities  of  the  United 

93 


THE    WIDTH   AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

States  which  have  not  gone  so  far  as  to  dream  of 
official  and  permanent  plan  commissions,  the  usual 
course  has  been  to  call  in,  from  outside,  one  or  more 
city  planners  to  study  the  community's  needs  and  to 
give  advice.  These  city  planners  are  men,  trained 
sometimes  in  one  profession  and  sometimes  in  another, 
who  have  specialized  on  the  physical  development  of 
cities  and  towns.  They  have  schooled  themselves  to 
see  quickly,  and  to  think  in  big  terms,  and  they  are 
men  of  imagination  with  strong  practical  sympathies. 
Taking  up  each  problem  conscientiously  and  with 
fresh  interest,  they  undoubtedly  perform  for  the  cities 
that  retain  them  a  service  of  incalculable  value.  They 
offer,  in  conveniently  concentrated  form,  the  central 
viewpoint ;  they  take,  beyond  the  cavil  of  petty  politics 
or  local  interests,  the  community  standpoint;  they 
bring  to  the  particular  problem  of  the  particular  town 
a  broad,  fresh  outlook  and  a  knowledge  of  the  experi- 
ence of  other  communities.  The  impetus  which  they 
thus  give  to  the  city's  wise  development  and  bolder 
public  spirit  is  greater  than  can  be  measured ;  but  the 
reports  they  make  and  the  pictures  they  draw  have 
not  been  as  yet,  in  any  large  and  literal  sense,  city 
plans. 

The  true  city  plan  must  be  worked  out  very  slowly, 
on  the  ground,  through  a  course  of  many  years.  It  is 
almost  sure  to  be  bettered,  at  one  stage  or  another, 
however  it  is  first  made,  by  the  suggestion  and  criti- 
cism of  outside  experts;  and  it  is  certain  to  need,  to 
insure  its  gradual  unfolding  in  visible  reality,  a  strong, 
permanent,  central  control — partly  represented  by  law 
and  partly  by  the  authority  of  officials.  That  the  mak- 
ing of  this  city  plan,  and  the  subsequent  control  of  it, 
is  no  matter  to  be  lightly  delegated  to  any  group  of 
untrained  individuals,  or  conveniently  existing  official 

94 


PROVISION    OF    CENTRAL    CONTROL 

l)ody  that  has  other  serious  duties  to  perform,  is  one 
of  the  principles  which  this  book  would  especially 
emphasize. 


95 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PLATTING  OF  MINOR  RESIDENCE   STREETS  IN  HIGH 
CLASS  DISTRICTS 

RETURNING  now  to  the  platting  of  streets,  we  may 
take  up  again  the  special  problems  offered  by  those 
of  residence  neighborhoods — that  is  to  say,  having- 
indicated  the  importance  and  general  character  of  the 
main  traffic  thoroughfares,  we  are  at  liberty  to  resume 
consideration  of  minor  residence  streets.  "The 
streets,"  said  a  writer,*  when  describing  the  plans  for 
Hellerau,  the  garden  city  near  Dresden,  "conform  to 
the  lie  of  the  hills  in  delicate  curves,  and  present  to 
the  architects  who  will  be  building  here  the  best  oppor- 
tunity for  making  charming  city  pictures.  Near  the 
workshops  stretches  out  the  quarter  occupied  by  small 
dwellings,  in  which  the  houses  belonging  to  single 
families  are  united  in  groups  and  rows."  In  another 
section,  he  added,  "extensive  quarters  for  country 
houses  are  provided." 

In  a  general  way  this  statement  puts  briefly  the 
ideal  of  a  street  layout  which  might  be  in  the  residence 
portion  of  any  city.  It  suggests,  also,  the  natural  sub- 
division of  the  subject  into  at  least  two  main  discus- 
sions— one  having  to  do  with  high  class  regions,  where 
plats  vary  in  size,  but  are  relatively  large;  and  one 
having  to  do  with  workingmen's  districts  where  the 

*  Bernard  Kampffmeyer,  chairman  of  the  German  Garden  City 
Association,  in  Garden  Cities  (England),  Dec.,  1908. 

96 


PLATTING  OF  MIXOR  RESIDENCE  STREETS 

lot  unit  is  small.  Of  course  between  these  two  extremes 
there  must  be,  in  every  city,  provision  for  the  great 
middle  class — if  that  phrase  may  be  used — through 
which,  by  steps  too  gradual  for  separate  observation, 
the  one  extreme  graduates  into  the  other.  But  that 
scarcely  demands  separate  consideration.  Just  be- 
cause the  progression  is  so  gradual,  there  is  no  line 
that  distinctly  sets  it  off,  and  according  as  the  middle 
class  assumes,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  a  likeness  to 
the  one  extreme  or  to  the  other,  street  and  lot  arrange- 
ment can  be  appropriately  adjusted — since  traffic 
needs  are  become  a  minor  factor. 

The  arrangement  of  the  subject  as  thus  proposed 
is  likely,  however,  to  provoke  this  query :  If  prettiness 
and  loveliness  are  to  be  the  attributes  of  the  higher 
class  of  residence  streets  in  cities  that  are  wisely 
planned,  is  there  to  be  no  provision  for  the  stately 
avenue?  All  the  people  who  live  in  costly  houses  set 
in  spacious  grounds  will  not  wish  to  live  on  streets 
that  curve,  however  "delicately,"  or  that  rise  and  fall 
in  conformity  with  the  natural  hills  and  dales.  And  if 
this  be  true  of  the  residents  of  houses  set  in  gardens 
it  will  be  true  still  more  of  those  who  are  content  to  do 
without  a  garden. 

To  that  query,  then,  let  there  be  immediate  re- 
sponse :  The  desire  to  dwell  on  a  stately  avenue  is  just 
as  legitimate,  and  is  just  as  worthy  of  consideration 
in  the  street  platting,  as  is  a  preference  for  quieter 
streets.  But  the  great  avenue  must  have  length  to 
match'  its  breadth,  and  it  must  be  direct,  else  it  will 
lack  in  dignity.  It  is  most  naturally  developed,  there- 
fore, and  with  greatest  frequency,  from  those  main 
arterial  thoroughfares,  of  which  there  has  been  dis- 
cussion, or  from  the  boulevards  and  parkways  of 
which  we  have  yet  to  speak.  It  tends  to  be  an  artery 

97 


THE    WIDTH   AND   ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

of  travel,  and  this  remains  true  even  though  heavy 
traffic  be  debarred  from  using  it.  For  travel  in  the 
city  makes  use  of  diverse  vehicles,  and  it  is  not  an 
essential  duty  of  a  main  channel  to  accommodate  every 
kind.  With  the  stately  avenue,  therefore,  though  it 
has  its  important  place  in  the^city  plan,  this  chapter 
need  not  concern  itself.  Nor*will  it  fall  within  the 
scope  of  a  discussion  of  those  minor  streets  that  are 
lined  with  humble  homes. 

To  take  up,  then,  some  general  rules  for  platting 
the  minor  residence  streets  in  high-class  neighbor- 
hoods, we  may  note  that  "when  the  main  roads  have 
been  laid  down  and  the  main  traffic  requirements  have 
been  provided  for,  the  spaces  left  between  these 
through  roads  can  be  developed  more  from  the  point 
of  view  of  making  the  best  of  the  sites  for  the  build- 
ings, and  less  from  the  point  of  view  of  public 
convenience."  That  is  to  say,  the  factors  most  con- 
sidered now  can  be  the  convenience  and  pleasure  of 
the  persons  who  live  on  the  streets,  so  far  as  there  is 
no  violation  of  reasonable  sanitary,  building,  and  fire 
precautions.  At  the  same  time,  in  making  any  sug- 
gestions, we  have  to  realize  that  site  planning,  as 
distinguished  from  city  planning,  cannot  be  success- 
fully carried  out  in  a  very  wholesale  manner.  City 
planning,  by  which  the  main  traffic  arteries  are  platted,, 
can  be  only  done  comprehensively;  but  once  that  is 
accomplished,  there  is  required  a  degree  of  thought, 
for  the  problem  presented  by  the  individual  minor 
street  and  residence  site,  which  can  hardly  be-  given 
in  sufficient  detail  when  vast  urban  areas  are  con- 
sidered in  the  mass.  If  this  be  true  of  the  single  city, 
it  must  apply  with  double  force  to  a  discussion  in 
general  terms  of  the  problems  of  all  cities.  Yet  we 

*  Raymond  Unwin  in  ' '  Town  Planning  in  Practice. ' ' 

98 


PLATTING  OF  MINOR  RESIDENCE  STREETS 

may  note  certain  principles  which  it  is  profitable  to 
keep  in  mind. 

The  necessity  for  economy  in  street  construction  is 
one  of  these.  In  preceding  chapters  there  has  been 
effort  to  indicate  the  far-reaching  social  importance 
of  this  consideration.  Here  we  have  to  observe  that 
the  economy  is  not  a  matter  only  of  street  width,  or  of 
style  of  pavement,  or  of  other  features  of  street 
improvement.  It  may  be  also  a  matter  of  street  loca- 
tion. The  primary  thought  in  this  connection  will  be 
regarding  the  lot  subdivision — so  to  place  the  streets 
that  they  may  cut  the  tract  into  the  largest  possible 
number  of  the  kind,  or  kinds,  of  lots  most  saleable  in 
the  sort  of  development  which  is  contemplated.  In  a 
high-class  residence  section,  especially  in  one  pictur- 
esquely developed,  there  will  be  demand  for  plats  of 
various  sizes.  The  attractiveness  of  the  plat,  its  sus- 
ceptibility to  pleasing  development,  and  its  relation 
to  its  surroundings  are  factors  that  determine  the 
area  most  marketable.  There  is  no  special  advantage, 
therefore,  in  a  section  of  this  kind,  in  establishing  a 
lot  unit,  for  larger  plats  are  not  likely  to  be  exact 
multiples  of  it  nor  smaller  plats  precise  divisions  of 
it.  Thus  we  shall  do  very  well,  from  the  financial  point 
of  view,  in  letting  plat-lines  determine  street-lines, 
instead  of  making  the  lot  the  product  of  an  exact 
arrangement  of  streets. 

In  developing  the  houselots,  even  in  a  section  wThere 
there  are  gardens,  a  certain  symmetry  of  shape  willr 
however,  be  found  desirable.  To  secure  this,  the  minor 
streets  will  have  to  be  platted  with  reference  to  the 
nearest  main  traffic  ways.  This  seems  an  unnecessary 
comment,  and  yet  there  are  many  examples  of  useful 
diagonal  highways  superimposed  on  a  rigid  gridiron 
of  minor  streets,  so  creating  awkward  corners  and 

99 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

unsaleable  lots.  As  Raymond  Unwin  says:*  "That 
the  minor  roads  in  the  northwest  corner  of  a  town 
should  be  parallel  with  the  minor  roads  in  the  south- 
east corner,  though  it  may  look  pretty  on  the  plan,  is 
a  matter  having  in  reality  no  value  whatever ;  but  that 
the  minor  roads  should  have  a  definite  relationship  to 
the  secondary  or  main  roads  of  the  framework  to 
which  they  are  adjacent  is  essential,  as  much  for  con- 


TWO-LEVEL  STREET  IN  A  EESIDENCE  SECTION 

The  beginning  of  a  longitudinal  bank  that  is  to  separate  the  two  levels 
of  a  wide  street  011  a  hillside.  Picture  from  a  new  section  of  Aix- 
la-Chapelle. 

venience  and  economy  as  for  securing  a  satisfactory 
artistic  treatment  of  the  street." 

The  fact  is,  briefly,  the  street  planner  should 
approach  the  problem  of  the  minor  street  with  no 
predilection  in  favor  of  any  geometrical  system.  With 
a  perfectly  open  mind,  he  should  simply  seek  the  street 
layout  that  is  most  appropriate  to  the  contours,  that 

*  Paper  read  at  the  Town  Planning  Conference,  London,  1910. 

100 


PLATTING  OF  MINOR  RESIDENCE  STREETS 

will  most  advantageously  subdivide  the  property,  and 
that  will  give  the  best  connections  and  best  shaped  lots 
on  the  main  highways.  He  should  not  approach  this 
problem  predisposed  to  adopt  a  gridiron,  checker- 
board, or  diagonal  system. 

There  are  other  matters  which  make  the  street's 
location  an  economic  factor.  For  instance,  there  is  the 
question  of  drainage.  Generally,  a  street  which  fol- 
lows the  line  of  natural  drainage  presents,  other  things 
being  equal,  marked  advantages  from  this  point  of 
view.  Again,  to  follow  the  topography,  where  this  can 
be  done  without  too  great  sacrifices  in  other  directions, 
means  a  large  saving  in  fills  and  cuts.  Or,  in  carrying 
a  road  along  the  side  of  a  hill,  it  often  is  well  so  to 
locate  it  that  there  is  more  of  cutting  on  the  one  side 
than  there  is  of  filling  on  the  other.  This  is  because 
the  street  sewer  will  probably  have  to  be  placed  low 
enough  to  drain  the  houses  on  the  low  side,  and  because 
the  houselots  on  the  low  side  are  considered  so  unde- 
sirable that  either  they  must  be  filled  up  or  high  foun- 
dation walls  must  be  constructed.  As  houses  on 
terraced  sites  are  well  regarded,  there  need  be  less 
anxiety  regarding  the  lots  on  the  high  side  of  the  street 
than  regarding  those  on  the  low  side.  Hence,  the 
change  of  a  street's  center  line  by  a  very  few  feet  may 
make  a  great  difference  in  costs  and  sales. 

Occasionally  it  is  worth  while,  as  the  Germans  in 
particular  have  shown,  to  confine  the  house  building 
to  the  upper  side  of  the  street  alone.  This  is  on  steep 
hillsides,  where  construction  on  the  lower  side  would 
involve  large  cost  and,  as  return  for  the  expenditure, 
would  shut  out  a  view  and  transform  into  a  common- 
place thoroughfare  a  street  that  had  tremendous 
natural  possibilities  for  beauty.  Narrower  and  more 
frequent  streets  on  such  a  site  will  sometimes  be  the 

101 


THE    WIDTH    AND   ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

method  of  development  at  once  most  economical  and 
effective. 

Then  there  is  the  two-level  street,  if  the  side  of  the 
hill  be  very  precipitous.  Here  a  longitudinal  bank  or 
retaining  wall  is  introduced  in  the  middle,  dividing  the 
street  into  two  levels,  as  was  proposed  for  the  water- 
front street,  so  bringing  each  side  of  it  nearer  to  the 
natural  surface  of  the  abutting  property.  Such  a 
street  must  of  course  be  wider  than  a  single  thorough- 
fare of  the  same  capacity.  But  the  saving  of  values 
in  the  frontage  more  than  compensates  for  the  cost  of 
extra  width. 

The  question  of  street  grades  is  of  more  than 
traffic  significance.  Though  there  be  wish  to  follow 
contours  on  streets  that  carry  little  traffic,  though  the 
automobile  has  robbed  the  grade  of  much  of  its  terror, 
and  though  the  hill  site  is  attractive  because  of  the 
view  and  climatic  conditions  it  offers,  care  must  be 
taken  that  grades  are  not  too  steep  for  long  distances. 
For  one  thing,  it  is  not  so  easy  to  sell  houselots  which 
can  be  approached  only  by  climbing  a  very  steep  hill. 
For  another  thing,  a  street  with  extremely  heavy  grade 
needs  more  expensive  pavement  and  sewer  construc- 
tion than  does  one  which  is  not  subject  to  torrential 
floods,  and  consequent  washouts,  after  summer 
showers. 

In  placing  these  streets  some  thought  should  be 
given,  also,  to  wind  and  sun.  The  home,  and  its 
pleasantest  and  healthiest  orientation,  is  a  more 
important  matter  on  a  minor  residence  street  than  is 
the  getting  of  a  traveler  to  a  certain  point  by  the 
shortest  route.  As  to  the  sun,  if  there  be  choice,  one 
should  take  care  not  to  run  a  residence  street  due  east 
and  wrest ;  or,  if  so  running  it,  he  should  try  to  give  the 
lots  a  wide  frontage,  so  that  important  rooms  of  the 

102 


PLATTING  OF  MINOR  RESIDENCE  STREETS 

house  might  have  a  southern  exposure.  If  the  street's 
location  be  swerved  enough  to  avoid  an  exact  east  and 
west  direction,  the  sun  will  reach  the  north  side  for  a 
little  while,  and  thus,  if  the  house  be  detached,  will 
shine  at  some  hour  of  the  day  into  every  window.* 
As  to  the  wind,  care  should  be  taken  when  practicable 
not  to  extend  a  street  for  a  long  distance  in  exactly  the 
direction  of  the  prevailing  winds.  A  street  that  serves 
as  a  funnel  is  pleasant  neither  to  live  nor  travel  upon. 
Diisseldorf,  for  example,  is  exposed  to  strong  west 
winds  over  the  Rhine,  and  Herr  Geusen,  Oberbaurat, 
has  said  that  lately  in  making  changes  and  clearings 
it  became  evident  that  curious  street  curves  in  the  old 
town  were  deliberately  planned  to  reduce  the  un- 
pleasantness of  the  wind  storms. 

Finally,  to  preserve  or  enhance  the  beauty  of  the 
street — a  very  justifiable  purpose,  where  the  object  is 
the  building  of  homes — a  slight  change  here,  or  a  curve 
there,  may  save  a  group  of  beautiful  trees,  or  a  single 
noble  specimen  which  represents  the  growth  of  scores 
of  years.  It  may  preserve  a  picturesque  boulder, 
which  might  otherwise  have  had  to  be  blasted  away, 
or  an  historic  shrine  which  might  otherwise  have  been 
sold  for  junk;  or  it  may  suddenly  reveal  a  view  that 
delights  or  thrills. 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  ever  so  slight  changes  of 
direction  may  make  great  differences,  in  costs  of  con- 
struction, in  saleability  of  lots,  and  in  comfort  and 
pleasure  of  life  on  these  streets  where  the  accommo- 
dation of  traffic  and  the  pursuit  of  business  are  not 
important  considerations.  It  is  clear  also  how  very 
essential  it  is,  for  good  results,  that  the  plans  be  not 
made  on  paper,  but  on  the  ground;  and  that  fixed 
rules,  requiring  a  single  solution  for  every  problem,  be 

*  See  footnote  on  page  135. 

103 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

avoided.  It  should  be  considered,  too,  that  there  is 
little  advantage  in  planning,  for  districts  that  have 
villa  development,  the  geometrical  arrangement  which 
looks  well  in  a  drawing.  The  lines  disappear,  or  at 
least  are  lost  to  the  eye,  amid  the  natural  surround- 
ings. In  pleasure  over  detail,  one  forgets  the  general 
* '  plan-picture. ' '  In  the  great  and  much  broken  spaces, 
indeed,  one  finds  the  "picture"  difficult  to  decipher. 

Nelson  P.  Lewis,  who,  as  Chief  Engineer  of  the 
Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  of  New  York, 
has  had  much  practical  experience  in  these  matters, 
has  written — as  if  in  summary  of  these  considerations : 
* l  The  interest  of  the  average  citizen  is  not  in  the  map ; 
it  is  in  the  street  system  itself,  and  it  might  be  pref- 
erable to  allow  these  various  subdivisions  to  develop 
along  lines  of  least  resistance,  without  exercising  too 
much  control  over  them.  In  fact,  if  the  treatment 
of  these  different  sections  varies,  a  more  pleasing 
result  may  be  attained.  Here,  where  the  topography 
suggests  it,  a  serpentine  system  of  streets  may  be  laid 
out;  there,  a  generous  depth  of  lots,  with  space  for 
gardens  and  ornamental  planting,  may  be  provided." 

If  some  one  objects  that  with  so  disordered,  or  at 
least  unsystematic,  an  arrangement  of  minor  streets, 
the  stranger  is  likely  to  lose  his  way,  he  may  be  reas- 
sured by  the  reflection  that  a  short  walk  in  any  direc- 
tion would  bring  the  wanderer  to  a  main  thoroughfare. 
And  Cornelius  Gurlitt  goes  so  far  as  to  remark  that 
"the  finding  of  one's  way  in  a  city  quarter  is  made 
easier  by  a  diversity  in  streets  and  open  spaces,  two 
similar  open  spaces  in  one  city  reminding  one  of  those 
practical  jokes  that  were  characteristic  of  garden 
designs  in  the  eighteenth  century."  There  is  some- 
thing to  be  said  for  that. 

Besides     hampering     picturesque     platting,     the 

104 


FITTING  THE  PLAN  TO  THE  CONTOURS 

This  subdivision,  made  by  John  Nolen,  for  Bound  Top  hill,  Madison, 
Wis.,  illustrates  several  of  the  principles  advocated  in  these  pages. 
Note  the  relation  of  the  residential  subdivision  to  the  main  highway, 
the  contour  roads,  the  use  of  footpaths  to  furnish  short  cuts,  instead 
of  additional  streets;  the  reservation  of  an  outlook  point,  the  varia- 
tion in  the  size  of  lots,  the  ornamental  park  spaces  at  important 
street  intersections,  and  the  location  of  the  school  next  to  the  park. 
It  is  interesting  also  to  observe  that  the  streets  gradually  narrow 
as  traffic  may  be  expected  to  diminish. 

105 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

straight  line  loses  now  even  such  measure  of  prestige 
as  directness  and  shortness  give  to  it  where  traffic  con- 
siderations are  paramount.  Among  the  homes,  the 
street  that  curves  may  often  be  highly  valued.  The 
time  has  happily  passed  when  there  was  need  to  plead 
for  its  attractiveness  and  beauty  in  such  environment. 
We  shall  come  in  time  to  realize  that  wherever  there 
must  be  a  bend,  not  less  on  main  avenue  than  on  minor 
street,  that  turn  should  be  a  curve  and  not  an  angle. 
We  build  our  streets  for  the  traffic  that  makes  use  of 
them;  we  see  the  car  tracks  sweep  around  the  angle 
in  a  curve  and  the  tracks  of  the  wagons  describe  lines 
of  grace,  but  because  it  is  a  little  easier  to  survey  lots 
in  straight  lines  and  angles  than  in  curves,  we  too 
often  destroy  the  beauty  of  a  street  and  the  adaptation 
of  its  course  to  the  traffic  which  is  upon  it,  in  order 
to  put  in  the  surveyor's  hard  straight  lines  and  angles. 
We  even  go  so  far  as  to  make  rectangular  street  cross- 
ings on  hillsides,  where  the  steepness  of  a  slope  may 
make  an  angle  dangerous  as  well  as  sharp. 

Further,  as  Dr.  Stiibben  has  pointed  out,  a  street 
ought  not  to  be  conducted  in  a  straight  line  over  a 
summit.  The  practice  imposes  the  tax  of  excessive 
.grades.  Moreover,  convex  changes  in  grade  are  dis- 
pleasing to  the  eye.  The  reason  is  that,  beyond  the 
.summit,  buildings,  street  furnishings,  vehicles  and 
people  seem  to  sink.  Passing  over  a  high  point,  Dr. 
Stiibben  suggests,  should  be  accomplished  '  *  by  a  bend- 
ing of  the  street  in  plan  and  profile,  the  course  of 
which  the  eye  cannot  follow  beyond  the  ridge;  or  by 
means  of  breaking  off  the  street  at  the  summit.  The 
interruption  may  be  a  vertical  or  a  horizontal  one;  a 
vertical  one  in  the  form  of  a  monument,  a  plantation, 
a  fountain  or  the  like  which  the  eye  cannot  see  beyond ; 
a  horizontal  in  the  form  of  a  crossing  or  dispersing 

106 


PLATTING  OF  MINOR  RESIDENCE  STREETS 

place    beyond    which    the    direction    of    the    street 
changes." 

But  because  a  curving  street  has  been  discovered  to 
be  generally  pleasant,  we  should  not  make  that  circum- 
stance an  excuse  for  creating  it  without  a  further  and 
practical  reason.  The  deliberately  manufactured  orna- 
ment that  serves  no  functional  purpose  does  not 
please.  In  the  curving  of  our  streets,  we  must  take 
care  that  we  are  beautifying  construction  and  not 
making  an  attempt  to  construct  beauty.  As  we  all 
know,  that  is  a  primary  lesson  in  art  and  good  taste. 

The  curving  street,  or  any  irregularity  of  platting, 
is  likely  to  leave  at  intersections  some  small  spaces,, 
gores  or  segments,  that  are  not  suitable  for  building 
purposes.  These  can  be  put  to  best  use  as  additions 
to  street  area,  or  as  small  park  spaces,  for  the  beauti- 
fying of  the  neighborhood.  In  a  high-class  district, 
where  attractiveness  of  environment  is  popularly 
demanded,  these  opportunities  will  not  be  overlooked, 
and  may  even  be  purposely  created.  Their  natural- 
ness, as  a  development  of  the  street  plan,  and  the 
intimacy  with  which  they  enter  into  it,  are  not,  indeed, 
the  least  of  the  merits  of  informal  and  picturesque 
street  platting  in  residential  neighborhoods. 

Of  course,  one  would  not  deliberately  set  out  to 
create  the  charm  of  the  unexpected,  such  as  seen  in  the 
narrow  streets,  the  curving  facades,  even  the  unex- 
pected turns — ''the  atmosphere,  the  quaintness,  the 
sudden  respite  from  the  wearying  strenuous  life" 
with  which  an  old  world  city  sometimes  so  delights 
explorers.  But  we  shall  find  that  if  we  go  lovingly, 
freely  and  joyously  about  our  task  of  designing  streets 
in  which  men  are  to  build  their  homes  away  from  the 
thralldom  of  business,  and  where  children  are  to  play, 
we  shall  somehow  create  that  very  charm,  that  very 

107 


THE   WIDTH    AND   ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

atmosphere.  More  than  half  a  century  ago,  A.  J. 
Downing,  stumbling  on  an  example  of  this  sort  of 
street  platting — happily,  it  is  much  commoner  now 
than  then — wrote  of  it :  "  The  whole  of  this  neighbor- 
hood of  Brookline  is  a  kind  of  landscape  garden,  and 
there  is  nothing  in  America  of  the  sort  so  inexpres- 
sibly charming  as  the  lanes  which  lead  from  one  cot- 
tage, or  villa,  to  another.  .  .  .  These  lanes  are  clothed 
with  a  profusion  of  trees  and  wild  shrubbery,  often 
almost  to  the  carriage  tracks,  and  curve  and  wind 
about." 


A  QUIET  EESIDENCE  SECTION  NEAR  A  BIG  CITY 
A  lane  in  Brookline,  Mass. 

Familiar  examples  have  convinced  us  now.  And  as 
there  is  danger  that  the  curving  street,  which  must  be 
so  strongly  advocated  in  writing  of  the  development 
of  residence  tracts,  may  be  overdone,  so  there  is 
danger  that  the  picturesque  will  be  attempted  on  a 
matter-of-fact  site,  the  lovely  and  informal  on  an 
unlovely  tract,  too  small  to  give  to  the  designer  the 

108 


PLATTING  OF  MINOR  RESIDENCE  STREETS 

necessary  scope.  There  is  need  of  spaciousness,  of 
proportion,  of  verdure,  quiet  and  natural  appropriate- 
ness. Any  flat  and  vacant  field  will  not  serve  for  the 
sort  of  street  beauty  that  may  properly  be  given  to 
rolling  land.  In  the  past,  we  have  erred  too  much  the 
other  way — ruining  the  naturally  picturesque,  at  great 
cost  leveling  hills  and  filling  valleys,  that  we  might 
transfer  to  a  beautiful  tract  the  plainness  of  the  plain. 
There  is  need  of  a  protest  against  doing  that,  and  at 
the  same  time  need  of  a  warning,  lest  we  should  go  to 
the  opposite  extreme.  Only  by  taking  the  home  motif, 
and  adjusting  our  development  to  the  conditions  of  the 
site,  may  we  hope  to  avoid  both  errors. 


109 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MINOE  STREETS 

^o  secure  economy,  picturesqueness  and  real  con- 
venience, in  the   streets   of  neighborhoods   that   are 


A  new  type  of  minor  residence  street  in  a  high-class  section.  This  is  a 
public  street  (in  Rochester,  N.  Y.)  but  it  is  short,  indirect,  and  so 
located  that  it  will  never  be  a  thoroughfare.  Note  its  inexpensive 
construction,  that  one  sidewalk  serves,  that  it  makes  no  inharmonious 
break  in  the  garden-like  setting  of  the  homes,  and  wastes  no  ground 
in  needless  street  space. 

strictly  residential,  and  to  satisfy  the  widely  divergent 
tastes  of  those  who  dwell  there — so  far  as  those  tastes 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MINOR  STREETS 

may  be  safely  humored — more  is  needed  than  simply 
3,  laxity  of  requirement  as  to  the  street's  exact  location 
and  alignment.  There  must  be  considerable  freedom 
as  to  their  development.  Only  in  this  way  can  each  be 
fitted  adequately  to  its  needs ;  only  thus  can  standardi- 
zation be  prevented  from  casting  its  costly  and  dead- 
ening blight  upon  them.  With  that  cost,  exacted  of 
tenant  and  owner,  this  chapter  is  not  concerned.  Nor, 
since  the  goal  is  nice  adjustment  of  means  to  end,  can 
there  be  indication  of  the  most  desirable  street  widths 
with  much  more  assurance  and  certainty  than  that 
with  which  it  was  possible  to  suggest  ideal  location. 
Yet  some  notes  may  help  a  little. 

It  may  be  remembered  that  Mr.  Unwin  was  quoted 
as  remarking  that  many  a  minor  residence  street  has 
a  smaller  amount  of  wheel  traffic  than  that  which  is 
comfortably  accommodated  on  the  thirteen  to  twenty- 
foot  carriage  drives  that  serve  such  mansions  as 
Ohatsworth  and  Blenheim.  J.  Ernest  Jarratt,  an 
official  of  Southport,  England,  has  seconded  this  judg- 
ment when  saying,  in  a  study  of  Southport 's  possi- 
bilities, ' '  Purely  residential  streets,  which  can  scarcely 
conceivably  become  arterial  thoroughfares,  might 
partake  more  of  the  nature  of  dignified  carriage 
drives. ' '  And  an  American  engineer,  John  W.  Alvord, 
has  reiterated  it  again,  in  so  serious  a  document  as  a 
report  on  "The  Street  Paving  Problem  of  Chicago," 
which  ,he  rendered  to  the  paving  committee  of  the 
Chicago  Commercial  Club.*  He  put  the  suggestion 
in  this  way:  "In  the  ideally  paved  city,  the  unfre- 
quented residence  streets,"  carrying  a  traffic  ranging 
"from  nothing  to  five  tons  per  day,"  would  have  "not 
more  than  eighteen  to  twenty-four  feet  between 
curbs." 

*  1904. 

Ill 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

It  should  be  noted,  with  reference  to  these  figures,, 
that  on  a  street  twenty-four  feet  wide  an  ordinary 
vehicle  can  turn  without*  serious  inconvenience,  and 
that  there  is  space  for  carriages  to  stop  on  both  sides 
of  the  road  without  blocking  progress.  Thus  that 


By  courtesy  of  Roland  Park  Co.,  Baltimore 

STREET  WITH  TURN  AT  THE  END 

width  should  be  sufficient  even  for  streets  which  have  a 
good  deal  of  travel.  Indeed,  Mr.  Alvord's  report  sug- 
gests that  often  it  would  be  worth  while  to  reduce  the 
roadway  to  the  minimum  width,  arranging  in  the 

112 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MINOR  STREETS 

center  of  each  block  the  wider  space  in  which  vehicles 
could  turn.  Incidentally,  such  a  variation  in  alignment 
would  introduce  a  pleasant  variety,  where  straight 
lines  are  not  particularly  desirable ;  and  it  would  facili- 
tate an  interesting  placing  of  houses,  that  would  be 
as  attractive  in  the  vista  of  street  and  lawn  opened 
to  those  who  dwelt  in  them  as  the  exterior  architec- 
tural opportunity  would  be  alluring  to  the  designer. 
In  Hampstead  Garden  Suburb,  the  company  having 
secured  a  special  act  of  Parliament  permitting  the 
construction  of  roads  only  twenty  feet  wide  (providing 
they  did  not  exceed  500  feet  in  length  and  that  the 
distance  between  the  houses  on  the  two  sides  was  not 
less  than  fifty  feet)  such  a  street  is  given  a  turning 
place  at  the  end.  This  might  be  done  more  often ;  and 
there  may  be  reflection  that  in  these  days  of  the  auto- 
mobile there  is  no  hardship,  and  hardly  a  perceptible 
waste  of  time,  in  going  to  the  corner,  or  around 
the  block  to  turn.  As  far  as  the  traffic  is  concerned, 
therefore,  it  appears  that  on  strictly  minor  residence 
streets  a  roadway  need  almost  never  be  more  than 
twenty-four  feet  in  width,  and  can  most  often  be  con- 
.siderably  less.  If  it  be  thus  narrow  and  have  a  sub- 
stantial, smooth  pavement  it  generally  will  not  be 
necessary  to  put  any  space  into  gutter.  The  distance 
between  curbs  is  narrowed,  to  be  sure,  but  the  whole 
of  it  is  available  roadway. 

On  those  occasions  where  consideration  of  future 
possibilities  must  make  advisable  a  provision  of  wider 
road-space  than  the  light  present  travel  needs,  and 
where  there  still  is  wish  to  keep  down  the  cost  of 
development,  it  sometimes  may  be  possible  to  utilize 
a  little  space  on  each  side  as  a  grass  gutter.  This  will 
be  more  attractive  than  stone,  brick,  or  concrete.  But 
to  be  successful,  the  street  must  not  have  much  slope, 

113 


THE    WIDTH   AND   ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

and  the  traffic  must  be  of  a  kind  that  will  be  too  con- 
siderate to  trespass  on  the  grass  edge.  Given  these 
conditions,  a  slight  depression  in  the  grass  plat,  which 
for  this  purpose  is  made  wider  than  the  normal  gutter,, 
will  very  well,  and  very  pleasingly,  carry  the  storm 
water  to  the  sewer  inlet. 

Since  street  width  is  usually  more  than  roadway 
and  gutter  width,  we  have  yet  to  ask  ourselves  regard- 
ing sidewalks  and  their  margins.  As  narrow  streets 
were  superseded  by  broad  highways,  the  contracted 
walk  that  had  been  crowded  between  curb  and  wall, 
gave  way  to  a  wide  sidewalk  space.  In  American 
cities  at  least,  this  was  early  paved  to  a  breadth  of 
ten  or  twelve  feet,  or  more.  Now  this  in  its  turn  is 
giving  way,  in  high-class  residence  districts,  to  grass- 
bordered  and  comparatively  narrow  granolithic  or 
cement  walks.  The  change  may  be  considered  indica- 
tive of  an  accepted  judgment  based  on  the  economy 
and  superior  attractiveness  of  the  narrow  walk  with 
margins. 

The  paved  part  of  the  walk  thus  constructed  is 
usually,  and  most  acceptably  on  minor  streets,  five  or 
six  feet  in  width.  The  margins  vary  greatly.  If  the 
street  be  fifty  feet  or  sixty  feet  wide  they  are  perhaps, 
most  pleasantly  of  a  breadth  that  brings  the  total 
distance  from  curb  to  lot  line  up  to  one-half  the  width 
of  the  roadway,  with  the  walk  placed  a  foot  from  the 
property  line.  The  proportions  of  sides  and  center 
space  thus  become  1:2:1.  On  a  fifty-foot  street,  we 
thus  have  a  twenty-five  foot  roadway,  and  six-foot 
margins  for  grass  between  the  paved  walk  and  the 
curb;  on  a  sixty-foot  street,  we  have,  or  could  have, 
a  thirty-foot  roadway  and  nine-foot  margins.  Less 
roadway  and  more  margin  would  of  course  look  better. 
When  a  minor  residence  street  is  more  than  sixty  feet 

114 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MINOR  STREETS 

wide,  it  ought  to  receive  special  treatment,  either  by 
center  parking  or  by  such  emphasis  of  the  side  park- 
ing as  to  change  the  proportions.  If,  however,  the 
street  is  narrow — say,  forty  feet  or  less  between  the 
property  lines — and  carries  a  roadway  and  double 
sidewalks,  it  is  best  not  to  anticipate  an  aesthetic 
contribution  by  the  margin.  A  roadway  of  eighteen 


A  GRASS  BORDER  PLANTED  WITH  SHRUBS 

A  street  in  Rochester,  N.  Y.  The  whole  street  is  beautified  in  this  way. 
Uniform  care  of  the  planting  is  provided  by  the  co-operative  action, 
of  the  residents. 

feet  and  the  five-foot  paved  walks,  (both  close  to 
minimum  proportions),  would  leave  the  margins  too 
narrow  for  trees  or  for  good  care.  In  such  cases  the 
trees  would  best  be  placed  on  the  property  line. 

115 


THE   WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF   STREETS 

The  margin  between  paved  walk  and  curb  may 
have  a  development  as  varied  as  its  width.     It  may 


A  CONTRAST  IN  WALK  LOCATION 

On  this  street  (in  Toronto,  Canada)  the  houses  on  either  side  stand  back 
about  an  equal  distance  from  the  curb.  On  the  one  side  the  grass 
margin  is  between  walk  and  curb;  on  the  other  between  walk  and 
houselots.  As  a  result  the  street  is  very  unsyinmetrical,  but  the 
striking  contrast  is  valuable  for  illustration  purposes. 


How  A  PRIVATE  DRIVEWAY  BREAKS  THE  LEVEL  CF  THE  WALK,  WHEN 
WALK  is  NEXT  TO  CURB 

be  earth,  gravel,   or  turf — the   latter  most  pleasing 
when  given  care.    Very  often  in  the  margin  trees  are 

116 


THK  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MINOR  STREETS 

planted ;  but  it  were  best  not  to  attempt  them  with  any 
uniformity  when  margins  are  less  than  six  feet  wide. 
The  grass  borders  are  sometimes  further  planted  with 
flowers  and  shrubs,  and  in  Germany  vines  are  not 
infrequently  looped  from  tree  to  tree.  Thus  the 


A  WALK  AT  HIGHER  LEVEL  THAN  THE  EOAD 


margin  may  be  of  considerable  width,  and  may  serve 
as  an  ornamental  feature.  In  fact,  its  value  in  this 
respect  is  often  deemed  such  as  to  justify  a  generous 
broadening  of  the  minor  street.* 

*  Occasionally  one  finds  such  a  walk  laid  next  to  the  curb,  with  the 
margin  of  grass  transposed  so  as  to  come  between  the  walk  and  lot. 
This  is  so  poor  an  arrangement,  however,  that  it  is  quite  rare.  There  is 
an  aesthetic  loss  which  is  obvious  to  any  one  who  compares  the  two 
kinds  of  development;  but  aside  from  that  consideration,  the  location 
of  a  narrow  walk  directly  next  to  the  curb  leaves  the  pedestrian  with 
no  protecting  barrier  from  spattering  mud  and  dust,  and  when — as  so 
often  in  American  cities — the  front  gardens  are  unfenced,  the  arrange- 

117 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

For  all  the  pleasantness  of  these  arrangements,, 
however,  we  may  well  ask  ourselves,  considering  how 
greatly  private  property  is  to  contribute  to  the  beauty 
of  the  street,  considering  the  advantage  of  economy  in 
the  public  work,  and  the  diversity  of  country  to  be 
developed,  whether  there  is  any  reason  why  there 
should  invariably  be  two  sidewalks.  We  may  even  ask 
whether,  when  the  roadway  is  adequately  drained  and 


A  SIDEWALK  ON  ONE  SIDE  ONLY 
The  residents  as  well  served,  the  street  more  attractive  and  less  expensive. 

so  paved  as  to  be  not  less  dry  than  a  walk,  there  may 
not  be  spaces  where  a  separate  wTalk  might  be  dis- 
pensed with  altogether. 

It  is  significant  that  in  the  high-class  villa  colony 

ment  seems  to  subtract  from  public  property  in  order  to  add  to  private. 
Other  objections  are  that  fire  hydrants,  lamp  posts,  hitching  posts,  tele- 
graph poles,  etc.,  which  normally  would  be  in  the  margin,  now  obstruct 
the  walk — seriously  if  it  be  narrow;  and  that  private  driveways,  unable 
to  rise  abruptly  from  the  level  of  the  gutter  to  that  of  the  sidewalk, 
have  to  be  carried  across  the  walk,  partly  at  least,  in  a  depression. 

118 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MINOR  STREETS 

of  Grimewald,  Berlin,  and  in  some  of  the  fashionable 
suburbs  of  Dresden  and  other  cities,  there  are  many 
streets  that  have  no  paved  sidewalks.  In  the  new 
Garden  cities  and  Garden  suburbs,  such  as  Harnp- 
stead,  they  are  very  frequently  omitted.  In  one  of  the 
attractive  streets  of  a  high-priced  residence  section  of 
Toronto  the  author  has  observed  that  certain  streets 
have  a  sidewalk  on  only  one  side,  though  there  are 
houses  on  both  sides ;  and  there  is  a  pleasant  and  con- 


WHERE  THERE  is  LITTLE  WALKING  ONE  SIDEWALK  MAY  BE  ENOUGH 
An  unusual  development  for  a  long  street. 

siderable  portion  of  Northampton,  Mass. — to  cite  one 
of  the  smaller  American  cities — in  which  the  streets 
are  developed  in  this  way.  In  many  city  squares  and 
small  parks,  traversed  by  a  much  heavier  pedestrian 
travel  than  one  would  find  on  a  minor  residence  street, 
the  walks  are  not  nearly  so  well  drained  or  substan- 
tially constructed  as  is  a  macadam  or  gravel  roadway. 
Have  we  not  unconsciously  standardized  the  form 
of  the  street  as  well  as  its  width ;  have  \ve  not  followed 

119 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 


By  courtesy  of  Roland  Park  Co.,  Baltimore 

The  value  of  an  elevated  sidewalk  in  reducing  the  cost  of  street  construc- 
tion and  in  making  available  lots  which  are  high  above  the  street 
level. 


120 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MINOR  STREETS 

blindly  the  example  of  the  business  streets  and  leading 
avenues  when  requiring  two  paved  and  equal  side- 
walks? If  the  roadway  space  which  must  be  reserved 
for  the  occasional,  but  infrequent,  vehicle  will  serve 
the  purposes  of  sidewalks,  we  may  not  only,  by  its  use 
for  pedestrians,  save  some  street  width — thereby 


SIDEWALK  INFORMALITY 

Note  how  the  walk  changes  from  one  side  to  the  other  of  the  roadway, 
and  varies  in  distance  from  it.  (Section  from  the  plat  of  Treeholme 
Park,  a  high-class  residence  district,  Chappaqua,  N.  Y.,  Charles 
Downing  Lay,  landscape  architect.) 

adding  something  to  front  gardens — and  save  some 
cost  for  construction,  and  a  constant  care,  but  we  shall 
gain  thereby  a  more  attractive  roadway,  with  garden 
borders  and  well  nourished  trees. 

121 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

Where  we  do  have  walks,  we  have  learned,  or  are 
learning,  that  we  need  not  always  be  as  careful  with 
regard  to  grades  as  in  the  platting  of  the  roadways. 
On  irregular  ground,  for  instance,  if  the  street  be  a  cut, 
we  may  reduce  our  cross-section  by  letting  the  walk 
take  a  higher  level  than  the  roadway,  and  so  seemingly 
bring  the  houselots  nearer  to  street  grade.  In  this 
economical  procedure,  we  find  that  on  a  minor  street 
we  are  actually  adding  to  the  street's  pleasing  infor- 
mality. Thus,  it  may  be  said  that  there  is  a  slowly 
growing  tendency  to  depart  from  the  theory  that  walks 
and  roadway  always  go  together — a  theory  easy  to 
explain  if  wre  consider  the  sidewalk 's  historical  origin : 
how  at  first  it  was  simply  a  space  laid  off  from  the 
road  so  that,  writh  the  increase  of  traffic  through  nar- 
row streets,  the  pedestrian  might  be  safe. 

But  we  need  to  break  away  from  custom  more  than 
we  have.  In  so  doing,  we  would  discover,  no  doubt, 
many  an  occasion  when  a  street  might  be  dispensed 
with  altogether  and  a  footpath  made  instead.  Let  us 
imagine,  for  example,  that  in  platting  a  certain  hill- 
side for  high-class  residential  development  we  found  it 
advisable  to  have  two  parallel  streets,  A  and  B,  along 
the  face  of  the  hill  at  different  levels.  The  bulk  of  the 
travel  is  on  the  line  of  these  streets,  but  as  the  houses 
are  detached  and  the  region  stands  apart  from  main 
traffic  channels,  the  volume  of  travel  is  at  best  very 
little.  The  usual  method  of  platting  would  require 
cross  streets  connecting  A  and  B  at  intervals  of  pos- 
sibly four  hundred  and  fifty  feet — the  Liverpool  stand- 
ard! These  connections  would  be  steep.  We  should 
have  both  an  unsatisfactory  and  costly  provision  for 
exceedingly  little  traffic,  for  we  may  even  fancy  that 
the  long  gardens  on  the  upper  side  of  A  run  back  to 
meet  the  long  gardens  on  the  lower  side  of  B,  so  that 

122 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MINOR  STREETS 

no  houses  front  on  the  cross  streets.  If  we  put  our 
connecting  cross  streets  twice  as  far  apart,  pedestrians 
would  complain,  more  or  less  justly,  of  the  length  of 
the  trip  from  A  to  B. 

Suppose,  then,  that  every  other  cross  street  in  this 
particular  development  be  narrowed  to  a  footpath. 
Would  not  the  arrangement  serve  the  convenience  of 
the  people  exactly  as  well!  For  consider:  If  a  person 
on  street  A  desires  to  reach  a  house  on  street  B  and 
would  be  taken  out  of  his  way  if  sent  the  distance  of 
an  extra  block  before  finding  a  connection,  it  is  clear 
that  the  house  he  wants  on  B  is  in  the  corresponding 
Hock  of  that  street.  The  chances,  therefore,  are  very 
many  that  he  plans  to  walk  there.  If  so,  the  footpath 
is  all  he  needs.  But  if  he  is  driving,  the  additional 
"block  will  surely  not  fatigue  him,  or  take  enough  extra 
time,  gasoline,  horseflesh,  or  electricity  to  justify  the 
building  of  a  street. 

The  condition  imagined  is  a  very  simple  one.  In 
developing  real  areas  the  opportunity  wrould  arise  in 
many  ways.  And  how  delightful  a  feature  of  city  and 
town  development  these  footpaths  between  the  gar- 
dens of  a  residence  district  might  become!  One  gets 
a  hint  of  them  in  the  way  some  streets  are  carried 
across  the  promenades  in  Frankfort-on-Main,  and  in 
the  cross  cuts  that  may  be  found  in  Cambridge,  Mass. 
Even  the  paths  that  cross  Boston  Common,  in  the 
midst  of  a  business  section  where  there  is  great 
vehicular  traffic,  give  in  exaggerated  form  a  suggestion 
of  the  convenience  of  the  footpath. 

Sometimes  there  might  be  an  ornamental  open 
gateway  to  mark  the  entrance  to  the  public  path;  but 
most  often,  doubtless,  it  would  be  distinguished  simply 
by  the  stone,  iron,  or  concrete  posts  that  are  the 
familiar  barrier  to  vehicles.  The  style  of  these  might 

123 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

be  standardized,  and  they  might  bear  the  city's  arms 
to  indicate  that  the  way  is  public.  The  paths  would 
give  a  restful,  rural  charm  to  a  neighborhood,  along 
with  their  complete  convenience,  their  economy  and 
their  practicability.  With  reference  to  the  latter 


How  FOOTPATH  EXTRA XCES  MIGHT  BE  MARKED 

quality,  their  usefulness  would  be  especially  marked 
in  rough  country,  when — if  there  were  only  pedes- 
trians to  consider — steps  might  often  be  made  use  of, 
to  a  heightening  of  picturesqueness,  a  shortening  of 
distance,  and  the  avoidance  of  disagreeably  steep 
inclines. 

124 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MIXOR  STREETS 


ECONOMY  OF  THE  FOOTPATH  IP  THE  GROUND  SLOPE  ABRUPTLY 

Two  views  from  Krupp  Colonies  near  Essen.     From  the  terrace  in  the 
upper  picture  steps  descend  to  the  level  of  the  street. 


125 


THE    WIDTH    AND   ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

If  we  imagine  houses  fronting  on  a  street  that  had 
been  narrowed  to  a  footpath,  as  they  well  might  when 
the  distance  is  not  so  great  as  to  make  such  platting 
inadvisable,  there  should  be  a  service  road  at  the  rear. 
This,  of  course,  would  be  narrow  and  inexpensively 
developed,  so  that  the  footpath  in  front,  plus  half  of 
the  service  road  that  would  be  back  of  the  tier  of  lots 
on  each  side  of  the  footpath,  would  still  represent  a 
substantial  saving — though  only  the  economic  aspects 
of  the  question  be  considered.  The  service  roads  would 
be  needed  in  case  of  fire,  sickness,  building  operations, 
or  for  the  delivery  of  heavy  articles — as  household 
goods  and  coal.  They  would  also  serve  to  carry  some 
of  the  public  utilities,  for  which  footpaths  might  not 
allow  sufficient  space.  But  the  service  roads,  at  worst, 
would  not  be  conspicuous.- 

By  these  means,  then,  might  we  not  create,  very 
simply  and  practically,  a  rus  in  urbe  of  a  most  service- 
able kind — even  a  Garden  city  for  the  well-to-do  and 
middle  class  whom,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  the  city 
still  contains  in  generous  number?  Among  villas  with 
considerable  grounds  on  sites  of  picturesque  and 
irregular  topography,  the  people  surely  would  thus  be 
served  as  well,  at  lower  cost,  and  the  region  rendered 
more  parklike  and  attractive.* 

*  Municipal  Journal  and  Engineer,  January  19,  1910,  gave  the  fol- 
lowing account  of  a  town  in  Southern  California  having  somewhat  such 
a  street  plan:  "Perhaps  the  most  striking  difference  between  this  and 
ordinary  residence  villages  is  the  construction  of  certain  streets  without 
any  roadways  whatever,  the  space  which  would  ordinarily  be  so  occupied 
containing  merely  a  wide  sidewalk,  between  which  and  the  houses  extend 
wide  lawns.  This  relieves  the  houses  of  the  dust  and  noise  of  wheel 
traffic  and  affords  the  children  a  perfectly  safe  playground.  Such 
vehicles  as  are  necessary  for  delivering  household  provisions  use  twenty- 
foot  alleys  which  alternate  with  the  roadless  streets,  passing  in  the  rear 
of  the  houses  and  connecting  with  a  commercial  street  which  parallels 
the  waterfront.  The  roadless  street  is  forty  feet  wide  from  building 

126 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MINOR  STREETS 

In  the  development  of  residential  neighborhoods, 
we  usually  need,  in  short,  to  get  away  from  the  stereo- 
typed and  formal.  Our  main  traffic  lines  have  freed 
us  from  the  rules,  restrictions  and  system  which  traffic 
imposes;  and  the  regulation  determining  the  space 
which  must  be  left  open  between  the  fronts  of  the  op- 
posite houses  has  given  us  liberty  to  leave  as  much  of 
this  space  in  private,  and  as  little  in  public,  ownership 
as  may  be  most  convenient.  Thus  we  can  have  a  side- 
walk or  omit  a  sidewalk,  just  as  is  best  fitted  to  the 
conditions  of  the  particular  street;  we  can  have  a 
footway  instead  of  a  street  if  we  prefer,  or  a  road 
without  a  footway  if  that  be  better.  If  we  have  a  walk, 
there  may  or  may  not  be  its  like  on  the  other  side  of 
the  roadway,  it  may  or  may  not  follow  the  grade  of 
the  road ;  the  margins  that  border  it  may  be  narrow  or 
broad,  they  may  be  planted  with  grass  and  adorned 
with  flowers  and  shrubs  or  left  in  earth,  or  covered 
with  gravel;  and  the  street  itself  may  vary  from  the 
location  and  direction  which  an  exactness  of  measured 
platting  would  suggest.  Our  purpose  is  not  a  regular 
scheme,  but  comfort,  peace  and  beauty,  and  the  sense 
of  the  freedom  of  home. 

Lest  this  .seem  to  countenance  a  laissez  faire  pro- 
cedure, let  there  again  be  reminder  that  there  is 
assumed  a  central  authority  charged  with  the  task  of 
deciding  these  matters  from  the  standpoint  of  com- 
munity welfare.  It  is  not  proposed  that  every  tract 
developer  shall  do  as  he  pleases.  The  creation  of  a 
town  planning  procedure  should  commend  itself  to 
large  owners  of  real  estate,  if  for  no  other  reason  than 

line  to  building  line,  and  the  sidewalk,  which  passes  through  the  middle 
of  it,  is  twelve  feet  wide.  .  .  .  The  plan  has  been  adopted  for  about 
thirty  blocks,  extending  for  a  distance  of  almost  two  miles  along  the 
oceanfront. ' ' 

127 


THE    WIDTH  AND    ARRANGEMENT  OF   STREETS 


128 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  HIGH  CLASS  MINOR  STREETS 

that  through  this  method  alone  may  they  hope  for  free- 
dom from  the  bondage  of  uniform  rules  in  tract 
development. 

Before  leaving  the  residence  district,  there  must  be 
recognition  of  the  occasional  demand  for  that  retired 
and  quiet  formalism  and  stateliness  which  neither 
picturesqueness  nor  a  flamboyant  avenue  could  satisfy. 
To  meet  this  need  which  is  worthy  and  genuine,  even 
though  it  be  limited,  two  types  of  development  have 
been  designed.  Each  purposes  to  give  to  groups  of 
costly  houses  a  dignified  and  imposing  setting. 

One  is  to  be  found  in  the  creation  of  semi-private 
"places,"  usually  about  a  block  in  length,  and  often 
having  their  entrances  marked  by  imposing  gate- 
ways— Vandeventer  Place,  St.  Louis,  is  a  well-known 
example.  They  resemble  short  sections  of  avenue  in 
the  great  space  between  the  houses  on  either  side  and 
they  may  even  outdo  it  in  the  elaborateness  of  the 
street  adornment.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  unlike 
avenues  in  the  peace  and  seclusion  of  their  aloofness 
and  their  consequently  narrow  roadways.  A  street  of 
this  kind  may,  indeed,  offer  connection  between  im- 
portant parallel  traffic  routes  that  cross  its  ends  at 
right  angles,  but  it  is  not  itself  in  the  direct  line  of 
travel  and  often  is  closed  to  general  traffic.  With  all 
its  spaciousness  and  pretension,  its  traffic  significance 
is  that  of  a  "minor  residence  street." 

The  second  form  of  development  is  that  of  the  quiet 
tree-planted  square,  or  other  open  space,  around  wThich 
the  houses  stand  in  orderly  rows — retired  from 
streams  of  travel  and  impressively  set  off.  Great  land- 
lords have  placed  on  the  map  of  London  many 
examples  of  this  arrangement;  Penn  adopted  it  in  his 
plan  for  Philadelphia,  and  there  are  many  scattered 
•examples. 

129 


THE    WIDTH   AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

Either  development  requires  a  level  site,  and,  in 
proportion  to  the  whole  population  of  the  city,  the 
number  of  persons  who  will  seek  homes  on  plats  thus 
developed  is  comparatively  small.  For  the  schemes  re- 
quire the  withdrawal  from  market  of  an  amount  of 
land  which  is  relatively  large,  as  regards  the  total 
development;  and  this  means  that  the  marketed  por- 
tions have  to  be  sold  at  prices  so  high  as  to  cover, 
between  them,  the  cost  of  the  land  withheld.  In 
addition  to  this  cost,  there  is  usually  a  heavy  expendi- 
ture for  landscape  work,  sometimes  for  architectural 
construction,  and  annually  for  upkeep.  And  not  only 
are  the  home  plats  located  in  either  one  of  these  ways 
expensive,  but  the  effectiveness  of  the  plans  requires 
that  the  sales  be  made  under  unusually  stringent  re- 
strictions. The  result  is  that  the  residential  place  or 
square,  exceedingly  attractive  as  is  its  contribution  to 
the  diversification  of  city  street  systems,  cannot  be 
considered  as  a  general  or  normal  type.  Indeed,  one 
of  its  claims  to  charm  is  its  unusualness.  As  soon  as 
it  is  overdone — as  the  semi-private  place  has  been 
sadly  overdone  in  real  estate  promotion  around  Los 
Angeles,  for  instance — it  becomes  wearisome  and  dis- 
pleasing. 


130 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 

IF  economy,  light,  and  air  are  important  considera- 
tions in  platting  the  streets  where  the  wealthy  are  to 
live,  they  must  be  factors  of  special  influence  when  we 
come  to  the  planning  of  streets  on  which  those  live  who 
are  not  able  to  supplement  by  private  purchase  what 
the  city  fails  to  give.  There  is  now  injected,  also,  a 
new  economic  factor,  with  great  urgency.  This  arises 
from  the  anomaly  well  expressed  by  J.  S.  Nettlefold* 
when  he  wrote:  "In  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  poor 
people  live  on  dear  land  and  rich  people  live  on  cheap 
land." 

The  condition  may  be  absurd,  as  he  declared  it  to 
be;  but  it  is  quite  explicable,  since  land  in  cities 
receives  its  main  value  from  the  human  use  to  which 
it  is,  or  is  believed  likely  to  be,  put.  The  land  that  is 
to  accommodate  a  great  many  human  beings  to  the 
acre  can  hardly  fail  to  be  expensive.  In  fact,  when  we 
would  set  bounds  to  its  cost,  do  we  not  put  a  limit  to 
the  number  of  persons  who  can  live  upon  it!  To  da 
this,  indeed,  is  one  of  the  objects  of  the  zone  system. 
Yet  as  the  poor  can  at  best  occupy  but  little  land 
apiece,  we  cannot  make  it  really  cheap.  The  most  we 
can  do  is  to  see  that  the  poor  man  receives  the  maxi- 
mum of  comfort  and  happiness  from  such  land  as  may 
be  his,  through  lease  or  purchase. 

*"  Practical  Housing." 

131 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

In  saying  this,  it  may  seem  that  considerations  of 
human  welfare  are  regarded  above  those  of  property. 
It  is  quite  right  in  planning  cities  that  they  should  be 
earnestly  heeded.  Indeed,  in  the  platting  of  the  quar- 
ters where  the  poor  are  to  live,  these  considerations 
have  such  importance  to  the  whole  community  that 
regard  for  the  public  health,  convenience,  and  com- 
fort— that  is  to  say,  for  the  best  practicable  livable- 
ness — may  properly  be  required  by  the  street  planning 
authority.  It  happens,  however,  that  the  course  which 
is  socially  reasonable  in  the  housing  of  the  poor,  is  also 
economic. 

The  difference  between  the  problems  offered  in 
platting  streets  in  high-class  residence  sections  and 
those  which  must  be  met  in  platting  them  for  humble 
homes  is  fundamental.  In  the  first  instance,  the 
enlargement  of  private  ownership  and  the  curtailment 
of  public  is  desirable,  for  it  is  realized  that  self  inter- 
est, if  coupled  with  ample  means,  will  afford  attractive 
-and  intelligent  development.  In  the  second,  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  need  of  private  ownership  to  a  minimum, 
in  order  that  the  necessities  of  private  economy  may 
not  involve  too  great  a  civic  loss,  and  the  maximum 
provision  byv  the  community,  so  far  as  it  can  afford 
to  do  so,  of  those  advantages  which  normally  come 
from  private  ownership,  is  the  desideratum.  Instead 
of  small  public  provision  and  large  lots,  wTe  now  seek, 
theoretically,  large  public  provision  and  small  lots. 
That  the  most  advantageous  use  of  the  considerable 
public  land  will  not  prove  to  be  in  the  building  of 
streets  alone,  does  not  invalidate  this  claim. 

In  theory  there  is  thus  a  reversal  of  policy.  But 
the  theory  that  in  its  poorer  quarters  the  city  should 
supply  those  playgrounds,  gardens,  and  neighborhood 
amenities  which,  in  a  region  of  wealthier  citizens, 

132 


THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 

might  be  left  to  private  provision,  is  qualified  by  the 
clause,  "so  far  as  it  can  afford  to  do  so."  Taxation 
of  various  form  puts  the  cost  of  such  benefits  upon 
the  neighborhood  that  enjoys  them.  Thus  under  the 
economic  conditional  the  theory  often  in  practice 
breaks  down.  Just  as,  in  considering  the  platting  of 
streets  in  neighborhoods  for  the  well-to-do,  it  was 
observed  that  sometimes  streets  are  given  excessive 
width,  in  order  that  their  attractiveness  may  be  en- 
hanced— the  community  assuming  some  of  the  task 
which  theoretically  might  there  be  left  to  individual 
property  owners;  so,  among  the  humble  homes,  the 
need  for  municipal  economy  sometimes  results  in  a 
minimum  acquirement  of  public  property,  where  in 
theory  the  maximum  would  be  desirable.  It  should  be 
noted,  also,  that  a  factor  of  considerable  practical 
moment  is  that  of  political  influence.  Rich  citizens 
may  secure  the  doing  of  some  things  by  the  city  which 
it  would  not  otherwise  do  and  which  there  is  no  real 
need  of  its  doing.  On  the  contrary,  poor  citizens, 
because  unfamiliar  with  modes  of  political  pressure, 
may  fail  to  secure  at  public  cost  some  of  the  ' '  improve- 
ments" they  ought  to  have.  Nevertheless,  the  theory, 
if  we  recognize  the  possibility,  and  probability,  of 
numerous  exceptions,  is  a  useful  guide. 

How  genuine  the  need  is  of  an  appropriately  pro- 
portioned small  lot,  and  how  serious  may  be  the  con- 
sequence of  failure  to  provide  it,  can  be  gathered  from 
the  fact  that  the  tenement  house  evils  of  New  York 
are  attributed  largely  to  the  use  of  the  standard 
25  x  100  foot  lot.  Social  workers  have  dubbed  it  the 
curse  of  the  city.  Not  that  there  would  have  been  no 
tenements  had  the  lots  been  less  deep.  Tenements  are 
inevitable  on  Manhattan — even  for  the  very  well-to- 
do — but  shallower  lots  would  have  robbed  the  New 

133 


THE    WIDTH   AXD   ARRANGEMENT   OF   STREETS 

York  tenement  of  some  of  its  worst  features.  We  find 
this  illustrated  again,  in  the  case  of  Washington, 
where  the  President's  Homes  Commission,  and  C.  F. 
Weller  in  "Neglected  Neighbors,"  have  pointed  out 
that  one  of  the  greatest  advantages  to  be  gained  by 
the  transformation  of  blind  alleys  into  secondary 
streets  is  that  the  size  of  the  blocks  would  be  cut  down. 
The  two  examples  are  significant.  The  one  illustrates 
the  responsibility  of  the  long  lot  for  the  dumbbell 
tenement,  under  conditions  of  excessive  congestion; 
in  the  other,  the  evil  which  developed,  under  less 
serious  pressure,  was  the  construction  of  rear  houses. 
The  point  of  the  illustrations  is  that  the  adjustment 
of  the  lot  to  the  need  is  not  a  matter  of  satisfying 
simply  a  whim.  When  one  deals  with  those  who  must 
count  the  cost  of  every  pleasure  and  comfort,  he  finds 
that  what  is  generally  to  their  convenience  is  likely  to 
be  pretty  close  to  the  bedrock  of  their  necessity. 

Granted  tlie  requirement  of  a  small  lot-unit,  as 
distinguished  from  the  serviceability  of  large  lots  of 
irregular  size  and  shape  in  the  higher  class  districts, 
we  shall  naturally  find  street-platting  determined  by 
lot-platting  to  much  greater  extent,  under  ideal  con- 
ditions, than  in  the  higher  class  districts.  We  shall 
find  also  that,  where  the  opportunity  is  given  for 
choice,  the  tract  developed  for  humble  homes  is  likely 
to  be  approximately  level.  This  is  not,  of  course,  that 
the  laborer  is  unappreciative  of  natural  beauty. 
Economy  is  the  impelling  force.  It  is  much  cheaper  to 
build  streets,  and  houses  too,  on  a  nearly  level  tract 
than  on  irregular  contours.  Moreover,  transportation 
lines  will  sooner  penetrate  such  districts. 

But  with  this  said,  it  will  be  found  that  various 
principles  which  were  expected  to  be  useful  guides  in 
the  development  of  high-class  districts  may  yet  be 

134 


THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE   HOMES 

helpful.  The  economy  that  may  be  secured  by  a  slight 
change  in  the  street  line  is  much  more  desirable  now, 
if  it  does  not  mean  added  cost  in  some  other  direc- 
tion— as  in  the  lot.  The  lessened  traffic  needs  which 
permit  a  narrowing  of  roadways  is  even  more  marked, 
since  now  the  private  and  pleasure  vehicles  are  elimi- 
nated. The  possibility  of  sidewalk  saving — either  by 
its  omission  altogether,  or  by  the  building  of  one  walk 
instead  of  two — becomes  here  so  plain  as  to  be  less 
often  overlooked.  If  the  country  be  undulating,  the 
reduction  of  expense  by  causing  streets  to  follow  the 
contour  within  reasonable  limits,  instead  of  adopting 
the  railroad  grades  that  engineers  esteem,  is  also  an 
economy  that  both  sections  alike  may  wisely  seek  as 
regards  their  minor  streets.  Finally,  the  orientation 
that  gives  the  maximum  of  sunlight  is  changed  from 
a  merely  desirable  to  a  needful  consideration.* 

Differences  in  platting  and  development,  as  con- 
trasted with  high-class  sections,  rather  than  likenesses, 
are  what  now  concern  us.  We  have  seen  that  the  lot- 
unit  is  small  when  homes  are  humble,  and  that,  as  a 
result,  the  community  must  furnish  some  of  those 
things  which  private  property  can  give  where  lots  are 

*  M.  A.  August  in  Bey,  one  of  the  official  architects  of  Paris,  has 
made  an  elaborate  series  of  astronomical  studies  to  determine  the  most 
desirable  directions  for  residence  streets  as  regards  sunlight.  Taking 
December  21st,  the  shortest  day  of  the  year,  and  making  observations 
for  Paris,  London,  and  Berlin,  as  representing  Europe;  and  for  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Washington,  Boston,  and  Chicago,  as  representing 
America;  and  basing  his  calculations  on  two-story,  four-story  and  six- 
story  buildings,  he  concludes:  "Streets  running  north  and  south  are 
eminently  healthy;  streets  at  an  angle  of  30  degrees  to  a  line  drawn 
north  and  south  are  healthy;  streets  inclined  at  an  angle  of  45  degrees 
to  the  line  drawn  north  and  south  are  moderately  healthy;  streets  run- 
ning east  and  west  are  notoriously  not  healthy. ' '  It  hardly  need  be  added 
that  street  direction  becomes  less  important,  from  this  point  of  view,  as, 
space  between  the  houses  increases. 

135 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

large.  For  example,  Professor  Dewsnup,  in  discus- 
sing "The  Housing  Problem  in  England,"  has  said: 
"The  haphazard  huddling  together  of  streets  and 
houses  must  be  prevented.  Whatever  the  detailed 
nature  of  such  a  plan  may  be,  it  must  provide  for  a 
thoroughly  ventilated  street  system  and  an  adequate 
supply  of  open  spaces."  With  open  spaces  other  than 
those  of  the  broad  street,  this  chapter  will  not  deal. 
But  what  the  broad  street  can  give  to  the  minor  street 
it  must  consider. 

The  statement  has  already  been  made  that  the 
latter  is  likely  always,  under  good  town  planning,  to 
be  near  a  main  highway.  When  reference  is  to  the 
minor  street  of  humble  homes,  it  is  almost  essential 
that  it  be  near  one.  Several  matters  emphasize  this 
need.  One  is  the  value  of  the  highway  in  ventilating 
the  system  of  narrow  streets.  Another  is  the  con- 
sideration that  the  workman  who  is  poorly  paid,  or 
has  long  hours,  can  live  only  where  it  is  possible  for 
him  to  get  to  and  from  his  work  quickly  and  cheaply. 
This  makes  proximity  to  a  traffic  artery  an  economic 
necessity,  except  in  those  cases  where  the  establish- 
ment of  the  factory  in  the  suburbs  has  made  the 
employee  comparatively  independent  of  transporta- 
tion into  and  out  of  town.  A  third  advantage  of 
proximity  to  a  main  traffic  way  is  social. 

The  life  of  a  busy  street  is  an  unfailing  source  of 
entertainment.  Not  only  will  the  cheaper  theatres  and 
picture  shows  be  gathered  on  the  main  highway  of 
travel;  but  the  street  itself,  with  its  restless  crowds, 
its  bright  windows,  its  exciting  episodes  and  com- 
mercial opportunities,  offers  without  charge  an 
attraction  so  well  suited  to  those  whom  purchasable 
pleasures  have  not  surfeited  that  there  are  few  vacant 
rooms  on  such  a  street.  For  residence,  its  advantages 


THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 

seem  to  such  persons,  even  after  deductions  for  noise, 
danger  to  children,  and  usually  inferior  living  accom- 
modations, to  outweigh  oftentimes  the  claims  of  the 
quiet  street.  To  the  class  of  persons  under  considera- 
tion, the  busy  street  indeed  typifies  the  lure  of  the 
town.  To  put  their  homes  out  of  convenient  reach  of 
it  wrere  to  demand  an  unreasonable  sacrifice.  In  this 
connection,  it  may  be  said  of  the  poor  in  every  city,  as 
it  is  said  of  all  classes  of  Parisians,  that  the  street  is 
to  them  another  room.  For  at  least  half  the  year, 
even  in  northern  latitudes,  the  occupants  of  humble 
homes  spend  the  hours  of  recreation  out-of-doors.  As 
it  was  put  not  long  ago  in  a  report  on  housing  con- 
ditions in  Chicago,  "The  streets  and  alleys  are  to  the 
people  of  a  well-to-do  district  only  a  convenience  for 
transit.  In  an  overcrowded  district  there  is  little  else 
more  important  to  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  the 
people." 

Aside  from  the  pleasure  which  the  broad  street  may 
bring  to  socially  hungry  lives,  craving  distraction  from 
the  narrow  round  of  oppressive  duty,  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  contact  which  it  offers  with  the 
outer  world,  with  the  joyous  larger  life  of  the  com- 
munity, is  an  admirable  antidote  for  pettiness  and 
sulky  introspective  brooding.  It  is  because  streets  are 
so  largely  depended  upon  to  furnish  light,  air,  play- 
space  for  children,  entertainment  and  diversion,  that 
they  have  been  so  often  made  broader  than  the  traffic 
required,  in  spite  of  the  economic  sacrifice  involved. 
For  these  reasons  well-meaning  persons  have 
acquiesced  and  even  rejoiced  in  an  action  which  costs 
tenants  dearly. 

But  tenement  quarters  on  a  wide  street  are  not  a 
correct  social  or  civic  ideal.  We  must  try  to  provide 

137 


THE    WIDTH   AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

the  individual  home  on  a  more  livable  street.*  In  so 
doing,  however,  we  must  recognize  the  good  qualities 
of  the  street  which  is  necessarily  broad,  and  seek  to 
.secure  these  advantages  for  humble  homes  by  putting 
the  homes  near  the  highway.  It  is  not,  in  any  large 
measure,  possible,  nor  happily  is  it  necessary,  that 
they  be  upon  it.  Further,  we  can  obviate  multiplica- 
tion of  excessively  broad  streets  by  furnishing  some  of 
their  advantages  in  other  ways. 

To  considerable  extent,  this  will  be  by  means  of  the 
parks,  playgrounds  and  other  public  open  spaces. 
Another  chapter  will  speak  of  them.  But  to  consider- 
able extent  also  these  advantages  are  furnished  by  the 
courts  and  little  gardens  which  narrower  streets  per- 
mit or  create.  The  father's  dooryard  is  a  much  safer 
playground  for  small  children  than  is  the  busy  high- 
way; in  the  tending  of  flowers  and  vegetables  there  is 
Avholesomer  diversion  and  exercise  than  in  patrolling 
the  garish  street;  the  doorstep  is  a  better  place  for 
visiting  than  is  the  corner;  and  in  the  garden  there 
.are  even  opportunities  of  a  financial  nature  which  are 
surprising.  If  the  life  of  the  highway  be  not  too 
distant,  and  in  platting  streets  for  workers  it  must 
never  be  far  away,  the  home  on  the  minor  street  can  be 
made  very  inviting,  when  given  a  little  garden. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  individual  home— 
of  which  the  garden  is  a  true  part — is  the  civic  as  well 
as  the  social  ideal.  "It  should  be  recognized  at  the 

*  Interesting,  as  a  striking  evidence  of  appreciation  of  this  fact,  is 
a  resolution  adopted  as  long  ago  as  1898  by  the  Town  Council  of  Diis- 
seldorf.  In  effect,  it  provides  that  on  streets  upon  which  the  owners 
agree  to  erect  only  detached  or  serai-detached  dwellings,  having  not 
more  than  one  story  above  the  ground  floor,  the  contribution  to  the 
public  sewers  will  be  reduced  by  one-half;  the  street  will  be  narrowed; 
and  toward  the  cost  of  making  the  street  the  builders  will  have  to  pay 
•only  the  cost  of  macadamizing. 

138 


THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 

outset,"  says  Lawrence  Veiller,*  in  a  comment  which 
applies  to  other  nations  as  well  as  to  America,  "that 
the  normal  method  of  housing  the  working  population 
in  our  American  cities  is  in  small  houses,  each  house 
occupied  by  a  separate  family,  often  with  a  small  bit 
of  land,  with  privacy  for  all  and  with  a  sense  of 
indiriduality  and  opportunity  for  real  domestic  life. 
Under  no  other  method  can  we  expect  American 
institutions  to  be  maintained."  Charles  Booth,  in  his 
"Life  and  Labour  in  London,"  summarizes  as  follows 
the  reports  of  his  London  investigators  with  reference 
to  gardens :  ' '  Houses  with  good  gardens  at  back, 
seldom  empty  and  hard  to  get;"  "houses  blessed  with 
gardens — a  wonderful  influence;"  "houses  witli 
porches  creeper-covered,  eagerly  tenanted."  And 
John  Burns,  speaking  of  the  English  town-planning 
act,  has  said,  "I  trust  that  the  chief  benefits  of  this 
act  will  be  fewer  houses  per  acre,  more  space  and  gar- 
dens about  the  dwellings,  more  attractive  frontages." 
Yet,  in  spite  of  the  value  of  these  testimonies,  we 
find  James  Cornesf  declaring  that  workmen  who  live 
in  towns  care  little  for  gardens,  preferring  the  relaxa- 
tions and  life  of  the  city ;  and  the  theory  of  city  plan- 
ning favoring  a  small  lot-unit  for  humble  homes.  The 
truth  is,  in  catering  to  people  who  can  spare  little 
money  for  luxuries  and  none  for  things  they  do  not 
want,  it  is  easy  for  garden  enthusiasm  to  lead  the 
street  platter  too  far.  The  sixth  of  an  acre  lots  at 
Bournville  are  too  large  as  a  standard.  Ebenezer 
Howard,  suggesting  lots  only  twenty  feet  wide,  ran 
them  back  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  feet,  which 
would  make  sixteen  to  the  acre.  But,  in  fact,  to  stand- 
ardize gardens  is  not  much  more  reasonable — though 

*  ' '  Housing  Reform. ' ' 

t  ' '  Modern  Housing  in  Town  and  Country. ' ' 

139 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

more  excusable — than  it  would  be  to  standardize 
houses.  Many  a  well  intentioned  philanthropist, 
convinced  of  the  social,  hygienic  and  financial  value 
of  the  garden,  and  aware  that  there  are  employees 
who  are  able  to  work  joyously  and  successfully  a  con- 
siderable garden  area,  after  platting  a  tract  for 
humble  homes  with  narrow  streets  and  long  gardens, 
has  found  he  made  a  mistake.  In  such  cases  the  gar- 
den space  connected  with  some  of  the  houses  is  sure 
to  be  worse  than  wasted;  and  the  occupants  of  those 
houses  are  compelled  to  do  without  some  things  they 
want,  in  order  to  have  what  the  philanthropic  tract 
developer  thought  they  ought  to  want. 

There  is  need  of  discriminating  between  the  diverse 
home  requirements  of  different  groups  of  workers. 
'  Store  clerks,  bookkeepers,  stenographers,  etc.,  are 
likely  to  find  in  the  excuse  for  exercise  that  a  garden 
offers  just  the  physical  antidote  which  the  exactions 
of  their  calling  demand.  But  they  do  not  usually  live 
on  the  humblest  streets.  On  the  other  hand,  men  who 
do,  after  hard  physical  exertion  all  day,  return  at  night 
too  weary  of  body  to  work  in  a  garden.  Hence,  since 
it  can  be  seldom  foreseen  that  every  worker  on  a  given 
street  will  perform  a  certain  kind  of  labor,  arises  the 
folly  of  asserting  that  every  householder  shall  or  shall 
not  have  a  considerable  garden.  Let  us  substitute 
"may"  for  shall. 

Allotment  gardens,  now  so  popular  in  England  and 
Germany,  offer  a  wray  out  of  the  predicament.  By 
preserving  for  allotments  a  strip  in  the  middle  of 
certain  blocks,  behind  the  houses,  it  is  possible  to  make 
the  backyards  of  those  blocks  as  small  as  the  usual 
city-bred  worker  could  desire  or  find  to  his  advantage. 
Then  the  man  who  wishes  more  garden  than  the  back- 
yard offers  can  have  it,  by  means  of  an  allotment 

140 


THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 

garden.  And  it  will  be  as  near  his  house  as  if  it  had 
not  been  set  off  from  his  backyard.  He  can  have  as 
much  as  he  can  pay  for,  or  profitably  work,  and  no  one 
is  compelled  to  pay  for  space  he  does  not  want.  This 
form  of  development  has  been  adopted  in  various 
places — Harborne,  England,  is  a  good  illustration ;  and 
it  is  very  much  to  be  preferred  to  that  earlier  form 
which  put  all  the  allotment  gardens  by  themselves,  at 
a  place  which  consequently  was  more  or  less  remote 
from  the  workmen's  homes. 


Bebincfton 


Road 


ALLOTMENT  GARDENS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OP  A  BLOCK 
A  section  from  the  plat  of  Port  Sunlight,  England. 

When  the  private  back  garden  is  reduced  as  sug- 
gested, it  is  especially  desirable  to  establish  not  only 
a  front  building  line,  but  also  a  back  one.  Certainly 
this  will  be  true  wherever  shallow  lots  have  not  allot- 
ment gardens,  or  other  reserved  public  space,  behind 
them. 

The  importance  has  been  dwelt  upon  of  a  small  lot- 
unit  for  the  humble  home.  The  problem,  as  stated  at 
the  beginning  of  the  chapter,  is  to  make  a  minimum  of 
space  yield  a  maximum  of  comfort  and  pleasure.  As 
long  as  we  deal  with  one-family  houses  that  stand  in 

141 


THE    WIDTH   AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF   STREETS 

small  gardens,  even  though  the  houses  be  built  in 
short  continuous  rows,  or  groups,  and  contemplate  the 
possibility  that  some  occupants  may  add  to  their  quota 
of  garden  space  by  renting  allotments,  the  problem  is 
pleasant  and  easy.  But  as  land  area  per  capita  de- 
creases, the  cottage  merges  into  the  tenement. 

In  making  shallow  lots  and  narrow  streets  we  do 
something  to  put  off  the  evil  day  and  even  to  dis- 
courage tenement  building;  nor  is  this,  happily,  quite 
all  that  can  be  done.  As  the  time  for  the  tenement  is 
seen  to  draw  near,  it  can  be  yet  further  warded  off  by 
grouping  cottages.  There  are  two  ways  of  doing  this : 
several  small  houses  may  be  combined,  so  forming  a 
large  architectural  unit.  This  has  the  incidental  but 
considerable  aesthetic  advantage  of  avoiding  the 
repetition  of  many  small  units,  and  makes  it  possible 
to  render  the  construction  along  the  side  of  a  street  of 
humble  homes  commensurate  in  scale  with  the  propor- 
tions of  the  street — as  it  hardly  can  be  when  the  unit 
is  a  small,  perhaps  single-story,  detached  cottage.  The 
other  way  is  to  take  a  hint  from  college  quadrangles 
and  cathedral  closes.  In  this  case  some  of  the  reserved 
land  in  the  rear  may  be  absorbed  and  the  houses  built 
in  continuous  rows  around  three  sides  of  a  small  court, 
or  yard,  of  which  the  fourth  side  is  the  street.  By  this 
means  a  small  front  garden  space  will  serve  all  the 
families  in  all  the  houses  that  look  out  upon  it;  it  will 
give  at  least  a  semi-privacy,  a  place  for  visiting  and  a 
pleasant  outlook,  and  may  be  made  to  add  to  the  pic- 
turesqueness  of  the  street. 

When  the  tenement  can  no  longer  be  prevented,  the 
c*ity  must  step  in  and  say  that  it  can  be  erected  on  no 
truly  minor  street — as  no  high  building  should  be;* 

*  A  Baltimore  committee  has  recommended  that  no  tenement  be 
permitted  on  a  street  less  than  forty  feet  in  breadth. 

142 


THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 

that  it  shall  not  exceed  in  height  the  width  of  the 
widest  street  on  which  it  stands;  that  it  shall  cover 
no  more  than  70  per  cent  of  the  lot  area — every  room 
opening  upon  the  street,  or  upon  a  yard  of  depth  suf- 
ficient to  insure  adequate  ventilation,  or  upon  a  court 
of  which  the  length  and  especially  the  minimum  width, 
increasing  with  the  building's  height,  shall  be  such  as 
to  give  good  ventilation.  In  most  cities,  probably,  the 
proportion  of  lot  which  may  be  built  upon  can  be  put 


WARDING  OFF  THE  TENEMENT 

One-family  houses  built  iu. continuous  rows  around  three  sides  of  a  court, 
or  common  yard. 

even  lower  than  70  per  cent.  There  will  be  other 
restrictions,  of  course,  but  of  less  direct  concern  to  the 
present  subject.  Our  best  hope  must  still  be  that  the 
shallow  lot,  the  lessened  cost  of  developing  tracts  for 
humble  homes,  owing  to  narrow  and  inexpensive 
streets,  and  the  improved  transportation  facilities, 
which  a  well  thought  out  system  of  main  highways  can 
afford,  will  make  tenements  unnecessary,  save  in 
occasional  instances,  and  therefore  unprofitable. 

143 


THE    WIDTH   AND   ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

If  there  must  be  tenements,  we  can  further  amelio- 
rate conditions  by  supplementing  negative  restrictions. 
Taking  a  hint  from  the  cottage  plan  for  fighting  tene- 
ments, we  can  build  them  also  around  three  sides  of  a 
court,  then  giving  to  the  court  the  touch  of  beauty  and 
the  simple  practical  service  of  a  sandpile  for  the 
children  and  of  benches  for  the  parents  and  the  old 
folks. 

Where  the  tenement  does  not  originate  through 


THE  TENEMENT  AT  ITS  BEST 

Ornamental  planting  in  the  large  courtyard  of  a  German  tenement.     In 
some  courts  a  portion  is  enclosed  to  serve  as  a  children  's  playground. 

the  need  of  obtaining  a  high  return  from  the  land, 
because  of  the  capital  represented  by  the  land's  exces- 
sive value  or  because  of  the  height  of  what  may  be 
called  the  property's  carrying  charges,  it  will  in  most 
cases  owe  its  existence  to  the  wish,  or  need,  of  a  great 
many  people  to  crowd  into  a  small  space.  The  most 
familiar  cause  for  this  is  the  concentration  of  factories 
in  sections  having  but  limited  residence  territory  in 

144 


THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 

their  neighborhood.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  the 
removal  of  factories  to  outlying  regions  may  be  one  of 
the  most  effective  agencies  for  counteracting  the 
tenement. 

From  the  town  planning  standpoint,  removal  is 
commended  also  by  its  withdrawal  of  objectional 
smoke  and  noise,  and  by  the  possibility  of  increasing 
factory  efficiency.  The  latter  feature  must  be  devel- 
oped, for  though  it  is  desirable  to  relieve  congested 
living  conditions,  the  manufacturer  may  not  be  ex- 
pected to  move  his  plant  into  the  suburbs  simply 
because  he  is  sorry  for  the  crowded  poor.  To  make  it 
worth  his  while,  then,  to  locate  in  the  suburbs,  there  is 
offered  a  double  stimulus :  the  promotion  of  industry 
and  the  lessening  of  housing  congestion. 

In  order  that  industrial  efficiency  may  be  promoted 
when  factories  are  located  in  the  outskirts  of  a  town, 
there  must  be  provided  superior  transportation  facili- 
ties by  rail  and  vehicle,  and  if  possible  by  water;  the 
land  must  be  cut  into  blocks  of  conveniently  large  size 
for  buildings,  and  the  manufacturer  must  be  assured 
that  the  efficiency  of  his  labor,  its  steadiness  and  con- 
tentment, will  be  increased  through  a  greater  health- 
fulness  of  environment,  an  improved  home  influence 
and  the  enlarged  opportunities  for  outdoor  exercise. 
Happily,  these  are  matters  which  town  planning  can 
largely  control.  It  can,  also,  count  on  the  precious  aid 
which  will  be  lent  to  it  by  longer  hours  of  brighter  day- 
light, and  by  the  lower  ground  values  and  ground  rents 
that  permit  a  horizontal  extension  of  plants  At  Letch- 
worth  Garden  City,  England,  for  example,  manufac- 
turers are  able  to  secure  on  ninety-nine  year  lease,  at 
$75  annually,  an  amount  of  land  that  in  some  manufac- 
turing districts  of  London  would  cost,  it  is  said, 
$15,000  a  year.  The  urban  advantages  of  proximity 

145 


THE    WIDTH    AXD    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

to  market  and  to  a  large  supply  of  labor  are  thus 
partially  offset,  while  good  planning  can,  as  suggested, 
still  further  weaken  them.  In  German  cities  the 
elaborate  development  of  distinct  Factory  Districts  is 
recognized  as  a  very  important  part  of  city  planning. 

Finally,  in  securing  a  removal  of  factories  to  the 
outskirts,  town  planning  has  the  opportunity — as 
already  indicated — of  putting  them  where  they  will  do- 
least  injury  to  the  community.  That  is  to  say,  in  the 
arbitrary  creation  of  a  factory  district,  there  must  be 
consideration  not  only  of  transportation  opportunities 
— a  feature  which  it  is  comparatively  easy  to  control— 
and  of  general  healthfulness  of  locality;  but  also  of 
the  proposed  position  in  its  relation  to  the  existing 
city.  The  factories  should  not  be  put  where  the  pre- 
vailing wind  will  carry  their  smoke  into  the  city,  where 
their  location  checks  the  natural  growth  of  high-class 
residence  districts,  or  where  the  heavy  teaming  inci- 
dent to  their  operation  is  compelled  to  make  use  of 
expensively  developed  avenues.  Finally,  in  large 
towns  more  than  one  industrial  district  should  be 
planned,  lest — even  with  suburban  location — residen- 
tial congestion  result.  The  subject  is  touched  upon 
without  elaboration,  as  a  related,  though  not  an 
essential,  part  of  this  book's  discussion. 

It  is  significant,  then,  in  considering  the  opportu- 
nity for  improved  housing  facilities  which  the  removal 
of  factories  affords,  that  the  present  town  planning 
movement  has  been  preceded,  as  well  as  accompanied, 
by  not  a  little  thoughtful  platting  of  limited  areas, 
done  in  a  comprehensive  way  by  the  manufacturers 
themselves,  when  they  have  established  their  plants  on 
the  outskirts  of  cities.  Of  their  own  initiative,  they 
have  sought  by  such  platting  to  gain  for  their  em- 
ployees, as  well  as  for  themselves,  the  advantages 

146 


THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 

which  town  planning  ought  to  give.  For  example, 
Leclaire,  111.,  the  town  built  by  the  N.  0.  Nelson  Manu- 
facturing Co.,  is  characterized  by  "winding  cinder 
roads,  bordered  with  spreading  shade  trees."  In 
Echota,  the  town  of  the  Niagara  Development  Co.  at 
Niagara  Falls,  the  modest  homes  are  set  twenty  feet 
back  from  the  street  line,  there  are  shade  trees  on 
either  side  of  the  streets,  and  the  roadways  are 
macadamized  to  a  width  of  only  twenty-five  feet.  The 
Cornell  Co.,  at  Coldspring,  N.  Y.,  has  platted  land  into 
lots  about  50  x  80  feet,  has  put  trees  between  the 
houses  as  well  as  along  the  street,  and  hedges  make 
the  front  boundaries  of  the  gardens.  At  Gwinn,  built 
for  a  mining  town  of  the  Cleveland-Cliffs  Iron  Co.,  in 
Michigan,  main  streets  are  eighty  feet  wide,  containing 
two  sixteen-foot  roadways  divided  by  a  strip  of  plant- 
ing. The  three  main  streets  are  radials  from  the  rail- 
road station;  minor  streets  are  narrower,  and  each 
cottage  has  its  garden.  In  the  tract  which  the 
Plymouth  Cordage  Co.  has  developed,  at  Plymouth, 
Mass.,  the  park  and  athletic  grounds  adjoin  the  fac- 
tory— and  so  one  might  go  on,  mentioning  Wilmerding, 
Hopedale,  and  scores  of  other  places,  and  securing 
useful  hints  or  interesting  examples  from  each. 

In  Europe,  the  most  famous  developments  of  this 
kind  are  the  Krupp  villages,  near  Essen,  Ger.  Their 
suggestions  are  often  of  great  value.  In  the  Chocolat 
Menier  village,  near  Paris,  house  walls  are  built  flush 
with  the  street;  but  each  pair  of  houses  is  so  placed 
as  to  be  opposite  gardens.  The  gardens  are  long  nar- 
row strips,  averaging  300  square  meters,  and  are 
furnished  with  twelve  fruit  trees  and  are  well  culti- 
vated. In  England,  Port  Sunlight  and  Bournville, 
built  respectively  for  the  employees  of  the  Lever  soap 
and  Cadbury  chocolate  works,  may  be  said  to  have 

147 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 


ATTRACTIVE  AND  INEXPENSIVE  STREETS  OF  THE  KRUPP  WORKINGMEN'S 
COLONIES,  NEAR  ESSEN,  GERMANY 


148 


THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 


ATTRACTIVE  AND  INEXPENSIVE  STREETS  or  THE  KRUPP  "\VORKINGJIEN  's 
COLONIES,  NEAR  ESSEX,  GERMANY 


THE    WIDTH    AXD    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

blazed   the   way  for  the   Garden   cities   and   Garden 
suburbs. 

But  examples  drawn  from  such  developments  must 
be  examined  closely  before  adoption,  for  very  often— 
notably  at  Port  Sunlight — altruism  has  gone  further 
than  strict  business  acumen  would  justify.  Many 
times,  too,  the  manufacturer,  gaining  through  indirect 
benefits  results  that  are  denied  to  the  simple  land- 
owner, who  does  not  employ  the  labor  thereby 
rendered  more  efficient,  can  afford  to  plan  more  gener- 
ously and  to  provide  more  amenities  than  could  he. 
Often,  also,  the  employing  company  retains  ownership 
of  the  houses,  while  the  town  planner  should  seek  to 
encourage  individual  home  ownership.  His,  in  fact,  is 
the  difficult  task  of  planning  a  tract  development  that 
will  pay  a  fair  return  on  the  capital,  while  yet  keeping 
the  rental  and  sale  value  of  the  dwellings  within  the 
workman's  reach. 

Yet  all  such  experiments  have  this  significance : 
They  show  the  existence  of  a  demand,  both  on  the  part 
of  capital  and  labor,  for  the  planning  of  attractive 
residence  districts  for  factory  employees  on  the  out- 
skirts of  cities.  No  doubt,  also,  many  a  useful  hint 
may  be  drawn  from  them  as  to  practical  planning 
measures.  One  is  reminded,  at  least,  of  Ruskin  's  com- 
ment: "  Neither  sound  art,  policy,  nor  religion  can 
exist  in  England  until — neglecting,  if  that  must  be, 
your  own  pleasure  gardens  and  pleasure  chambers— 
you  resolve  that  the  streets  which  are  the  habitation 
of  the  poor,  and  the  fields  which  are  the  playgrounds 
of  their  children,  shall  be  again  restored  to  the  rule  of 
the  spirits,  whosoever  they  are  in  earth  and  heaven, 
that  ordain,  and  reward  with  constant  and  conscious 
felicity,  all  that  is  decent  and  orderly,  beautiful  and 
pure." 

150 


THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 

There  remains  the  necessity  of  saying  a  word  with 
regard  to  the  mixing  of  classes — a  subject  previously 
touched  upon,  but  seeming  in  this  chapter  to  need 
recognition  anew.  There  is  much,  no  doubt,  to  be  said 
for  such  mixture  as  a  sociological  ideal ;  but  that  does 
not  mean  that  houses  of  all  kinds  must  be  indiscrimi- 
nately thrown  together  on  the  same  street.  Street 
boundaries  do  not  limit  the  citizens'  interests.  Both 
poor  and  rich  are  probably  happier  in  their  own 
environment,  among  their  own  kind,  where  each  can 
live  his  own  life  in  his  own  way,  without  covetousness 
or  odious  comparison.  The  saving  clause  is  that  with 
good  town  planning  these  separate  districts  will  not 
be  vast  unbroken  areas.  Their  territory  will  be  small 
and  the  great  highways  which  cut  it  up  will  bring  the 
life  of  the  least  important  street  into  close  contact  with 
that  pulsing  through  the  highway.  Residents  on  the 
latter  will  be  in  the  same  parish,  the  same  political 
division,  lodge  or  union  with  those  on  the  minor  street. 
So  will  be  gained  the  healthy  open-minded  type  of 
society  that  is  desired.* 

Perhaps  the  chapter  cannot  be  better  closed  than 
with  these  wTords,  both  of  further  suggestion  and  sum- 
mary, from  Charles  Booth:  "I  wish  I  could  rouse  in 

*  William  H.  Baldwin,  writing  as  a  member  of  the  President '» 
Homes  Commission,  said  in  a  sub-committee  report:  "In  German  cities 
provision  is  made  for  homes  of  working  people  in  narrow  streets  running 
through,  and  connected  with,  those  portions  in  which  the  residences  of 
people  of  larger  means  are  found,  instead  of  having  each  kind  in  a 
district  by  itself.  Such  a  plan  would  have  a  peculiar  advantage  in  this 
democratic  country  where  the  difference  should  be  not  in  character  but 
simply  in  the  standard  of  living,  and  would  be  for  the  convenience  both 
of  employers  and  employed.  Such  a  system  we  practically  have  now  in 
the  alley  dwellings,  in  which  the  contact  with  the  best  residences  of  the 
city  is  so  close;  so  that  by  the  conversion  of  these  alleys  into  minor 
streets,  permitting  decent  living  and  encouraging  self-respect  in  those 
residing  upon  them,  we  could  establish  a  healthy  social  circulation  in 
the  body  politic." 

151 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF   STREETS 

the  minds  of  speculative  builders  a  sense  of  the  money 
value  that  lies  in  individuality,  with  its  power  of 
attracting  the  eye,  rooting  the  affections,  and  arousing 
pride  in  house  and  home.  Then  would  they  seek  to  use, 
in  place  of  sedulously  destroying,  every  natural 
feature  of  beauty,  and  take  thought  of  others.  A 
slightly  greater  width  of  garden  on  the  sunny  side, 
whether  front  or  back,  may  make  all  the  difference; 
a  single  tree  left  standing  can  glorify  a  whole  street. 
Fresh  painting  and  papering  within,  is  not  the  highest 
ideal ;  its  charm  passes ;  the  other  gathers  force  as  the 
years  go  by." 

It  is  with  that  spirit  that  the  platting  of  tracts  for 
humble  homes  must  be  undertaken.  There  must  be  the 
freedom  from  restraint  that  was  craved  in  the  plan- 
ning of  the  high-class  minor  streets.  With  minimum 
traffic  needs,  we  must  be  free  by  establishing  a  building 
line  to  gain  front  gardens  on  space  that  might  have 
been  thrown  into  dusty  street, — at  Homewood,  Long 
Island,  the  City  and  Suburban  Homes  Co.,  of  Xc\\ 
York,  requires  a  set  back  for  its  houses  of  fifteen  feet  ;* 
we  must  be  at  liberty  irregularly  to  widen  the  street 
so  as  to  bring,  if  we  can,  a  few  fine  old  trees  into  public 
property;  we  must  be  able  on  occasion  to  set  a  back 
building  line,  if  that  be  needed — as  is  done  at  Hetzen- 
dorf ,  a  suburb  of  Vienna,  at  Rixdorf ,  Germany,  etc. ; 
and  by  making  long  blocks,  where  tendencies  seem  to 
make  advisable  such  action,  and  then  retaining  rel- 

*  It  may  be  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  that  the  Harborne 
Tenants  Limited,  hampered,  in  developing  a  tract  in  Birmingham,  Eng., 
by  the  by-law  which  required  fifty-foot  streets,  applied  to  the  City 
Council  for  relief  on  the  plea  that  it  would  build  only  ten  houses  to 
the  acre,  and  would  set  them  fifteen  feet  back  from  the  street.  Belief 
was  granted,  and  in  reply  to  a  criticism  that  ordinary  builders  would 
want  the  same  privilege,  members  of  the  Council  were  quoted  as  saying 
that  they  might  have  it  if  making  a  like  agreement. 

152 


THE  PLATTING  OF  MINOR  STREETS  FOR  HUMBLE  HOMES 

a  lively  shallow  lots  through  the  creation  of  allotment 
gardens  or  play  space  behind  them  we  must  be  able, 
when  the  need  arises,  to  absorb  some  of  the  land  that 
has  been  thus  reserved  in  order  to  build  houses  around 
three  sides  of  a  court  which  is  open  to  the  street.  Not 
symmetry  and  exactness,  but  the  best  practical  hous- 
ing of  the  poor,  the  brightening  of  their  lives,  and  the 
fostering  of  the  home-spirit  should  be  the  aim. 

If  we  succeed  in  this,  substituting  these  gifts  for 
dark  courts  arid  dreary  streets,  where  there  is  not 
sufficient  light  and  air  for  the  health  of  body  or  spirit, 
we  may  expect  that  more  grandiose  town  planning 
projects  will  grow  easily  out  of  the  new  born  civic 
spirit. 


153 


CHAPTER  XI 

PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAN  THE  STREETS 

THE  statement  was  made  in  the  last  chapter  that  a 
system  of  platting  which  gave  large  public  holdings 
and  small  private  lots  was  desirable,  with  certain 
limitations,  for  sections  occupied  by  the  less  wealthy 
members  of  the  community.  It  was  added  that  the 
large  public  holdings  need  not  be  wholly  in  the  form 
of  streets.  If  we  limit  our  definition  of  streets  to 
traffic  ways — the  original  and  proper  meaning  of  the 
term — we  shall  find  that  other  public  reservations 
include  not  only  playgrounds,  small  and  various  open 
spaces,  large  parks,  and  the  grounds  for  public  build- 
ings ;  but  also  parkways,  and  certain  thoroughfares  of 
exceptional  width.  These  latter  will  be  those  to  which 
extra  width  is  given,  not  to  meet  the  demands  of 
ordinary  street  traffic,  but  that  they  may  serve  as 
strips  of  park-like  value. 

Perhaps  a  word  of  explanation  is  needed  for  having 
withheld  consideration  of  such  streets  until  the  present 
chapter — striking  features  as  they  are  of  the  city  plan. 
It  is  found  in  the  fact  that  a  chief  value  of  these 
thoroughfares  is  their  hygienic  and  social  contribution 
to  the  city's  life.  They  have  the  advantage,  indeed, 
over  any  equivalent  area  of  park  that  their  aesthetic 
attraction  may  be  at  the  very  doors  of  the  largest  pos- 
sible number  of  people;  that  for  the  well-to-do  they 
may  bring  the  charm  of  the  park  into  the  line  of  daily 
travel,  and  that  for  the  poor,  who  have  neither  money 

154 


PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAN   THE  STREETS 

nor  time  to  visit  a  distant  park,  they  make  several  of 
its  benefits  immediately  available.  Thus  in  signifi- 
cance such  thoroughfares  are  more  nearly  akin  to  the 
park  than  to  the  street. 

The  mere  enumeration  of  the  various  kinds  of 
public  reservations  which  may  be  found  in  cities,  aside 
from  streets  in  a  restricted  sense,  is  enough  to  reveal 
how  large  and  complex  a  problem  is  injected  into  town 
platting  by  their  means.  That  the  width  and  arrange- 
ment of  streets  must  be  frequently  influenced  by  their 
presence  is  evident,  and  that  these  reservations  cannot 
be  ideally  located  after  street  lines  have  been  fixed— 
not,  at  least,  without  much  wasteful  undoing — is  ob- 
vious on  reflection.  It  is,  then,  because  the  street,  the 
playground,  the  park  of  whatever  kind,  and  preferably 
also  the  public  building  site,  are  factors  to  be  coinci- 
dently  considered  in  all  town  planning  which  is  done 
in  a  large  way,  that  some  measure  of  consideration 
must  be  given  to  them  in  a  volume  ostensibly  devoted 
to  streets  alone. 

Xelson  P.  Lewis  goes  so  far  as  to  say,*  "Instead 
of  adapting  the  park  system  to  the  street  system,  the 
former  should  to  a  considerable  extent  control  the  lat- 
ter. In  other  words,  one  of  the  first  subjects  which 
should  receive  serious  consideration  in  the  prelimi- 
nary study  of  a  city  plan  is  that  of  available  park 
sites. ' '  Probably,  however,  without  giving  precedence 
to  park  system  or  to  street  system,  it  were  better  to 
say  that  the  two  are  interdependent.  They  are  best 
planned  coincidently,  as  products  of  a  study  of  the 
town,  or  town  extension,  site. 

In  making  this  study,  one  is  likely  to  find,  for 
example,  "waste"  areas  that  are  "the  despair  of  the 

*  Paper  read  at  the  second  National  Conference  on  City  Planning, 
Rochester,  X.  Y.,  May,  1910. 

155 


WHERE  A  STREET  WOULD  BE  EXPENSIVE  BUT  A  PARK  WOULD  BE  CHEAP 


A  DEVELOPMENT  THAT  WAS  ECONOMICAL  AS  WELL  AS  BEAUTIFUL 


PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAN  THE  STREETS 

engineer  and  the  sorrow  of  the  real  estate  dealer. " 
The  early  reservation  of  such  areas  for  park  purposes 
is  almost  sure  to  have  the  negative  value  of  saving  an 
enormous  amount  of  money  in  the  later  development 
of  the  city.  Even  if  they  have  been  considerably  en- 
croached upon,  economy  may  still  demand  the  giving 
up  of  ill-advised  and  costly  attempts  to  make  them  into 
conventional  streets  and  building  sites.  Imagine  these 
areas  as  precipitous  hillsides,  deep  ravines,  the  banks 
of  a  little  winding  river  or  the  shore  of  a  shallow"  lake, 
and  experience  shows  that  the  choice  is  usually  be- 
tween a  park  or  a  slum,  between  a  section  of  distinct- 
ive beauty  and  value  or  a  region  of  degradation. 

Fortunately,  where  topography  is  irregular,  those 
portions  which  are  least  adapted  for  business  or  resi- 
dence are  best  adapted  for  parks.  They  are  the 
features  which  are  naturally  picturesque ;  and  because 
they  are  not  well  fitted  for  building,  they  can  be 
cheaply  had.  Thus,  too,  there  is  the  probability  that  if 
they  be  not  taken  for  parks  they  will  be  dotted  with 
shacks  and  rubbish  heaps,  bearing  the  marks  of  the 
scorn  that  is  felt  for  them.  It  has  been  well  said:* 
"The  little  rivers  will  become  pestilence  bearers  and 
open  sewers.  The  fragments  of  ponds  remaining  un- 
filled will  be  nuisances  to  all  their  surrounding  neigh- 
borhoods. The  steep  and  rocky  hillsides  will  present 
everlasting  problems  of  street  construction.  The 
drainage  of  the  lowlands  will  be  ever  troublesome.  A 
logical,  instead  of  whimsical  or  accidental,  develop- 
ment would  make  a  city  most  attractive  in  those  parts 
where  otherwise  it  would  be  most  shockingly  ugly, 
ragged  and  ill-arranged. ' ' 

It  is  true,  of  course,  that  some  cities  are  built  or 

*  Henry  A.  Barker  in  the  special  City  Planning  number  of  Charities 
and  The  Commons,  Feb.  1,  3908. 

157 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

extended  over  plains,  where  one  acre  is  pretty  much 
like  any  other  and  all  are  well  adapted  for  streets  and 
building  lots.  But  even  there  it  is  economically  desir- 
able that  the  planning  of  the  park  features  proceed 
coincidently  with  the  planning  of  the  streets.  In  such 
a  region  parks  and  playgrounds  and  elaborately 
parked  streets,  to  say  nothing  of  public  building  sites, 
are  at  least  as  necessary  to  the  community  as  if  the 
site  were  not  so  uniform.  As  soon  as  it  is  platted  and 
transportation  lines  are  contemplated,  values  jump. 
If  the  reservations  have  not  been  secured  at  farm 
value,  the  community — even  though  the  town  plan 
prescribe  the  maximum  number  of  houses  per  acre- 
has  to  pay  a  heavy  penalty  for  delay.  And  though  it 
be  willing  to  pay  high  prices,  it  may  not  then  be  able 
to  locate  its  parks,  playgrounds,  allotments  and  other 
reservations  in  an  ideal  way.  A  park  may  have  to  be 
placed  where  it  has  no  adequate  approach,  so  that 
streets  that  lead  to  it  have  to  be  widened  and  whole 
neighborhoods  changed ;  a  site  which  has  been  cut  into 
lots  and  partially  built  upon  may  have  to  be  con- 
demned for  a  playground ;  or  a  schoolhouse  put  where 
no  sufficient  schoolyard  can  be  added. 

Further,  it  is  because  streets  and  other  reserva- 
tions are  not  independent  of  one  another,  but  have 
reciprocal  relations,  that  they  must  be  planned  to- 
gether. The  park  system  is  a  portion  of  the  frame- 
work of  the  city  as  truly  as  is  the  street  system ;  streets 
bound,  determining  shape  and  size,  small  open  spaces ; 
and,  conversely,  the  location  of  parks  may  be  a  deter- 
mining factor  in  considering  the  width  and  direction 
of  streets.  The  size  of  houselots  may  depend  on  the 
proximity  of  public  reservations;  parks,  if  bordered 
by  curving  streets,  wrould  be  often  more  attractive  than 
if  squared  off  by  straight  ones;  hillside  streets  may 

158 


PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAX  THE  STREETS 

widen,  happily,  into  outlook  points — treated  formally 
or  informally.  Boulevards  and  parkways  have  a  traf- 
fic value;  while  the  small  gores  and  other  left-over 
spaces  of  an  irregular  street  system  have  park  signifi- 
cance. In  no  town  planning  scheme  can  the  streets  and 
other  reservations  be  separately  considered  with  the 
best  effect. 

A  question,  which  will  very  naturally  at  once  sug- 
gest itself,  is  this :  What  proportion  of  the  total  area 


m  ^| ! 


A  HILLSIDE  STREET  WIDENED  INTO  AN  OUTLOOK  POINT 
A  view  at  Aix-la-Chappelle. 

should  be  put  into  parks,  playgrounds,  and  public 
reservations  other  than  the  streets!  Statisticians 
have  tried  to  answer,  but  with  as  little  success  as  if 
one  asked  how  many  trees  should  be  planted  on  a 
fifty-acre  tract  subdivided  into  blocks.  So  much 
depends  on  the  kind  of  trees  available,  the  use  that 
the  land  is  to  be  put  to,  and  other  considerations.  But 
F.  L.  Olmsted  and  Arnold  W.  Brunner,  collaborating 
in  a  city  study,*  quoted  a  widely  accepted  ideal  when 

*  ' '  City  Plan  for  Kochester. ' ' 

159 


THE    WIDTH   AND  ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

they  said  that  every  family  should  be  "within  easy 
walking  distance  of  the  park  which  is  to  supply  its 
needs."  In  quoting  this,  and  explaining  that  easy 
walking  distance  meant  a  quarter-mile  limit,  they  cal- 
culated that  such  provision  "would  involve  setting 
apart  from  five  to  ten  per  cent  of  the  total  city  area. ' ' 
They  added  the  comment :  ' '  From  twenty-five  to  forty 
or  fifty  per  cent  is  set  apart  for  streets,  without  hesi- 
tation." And  so  good  an  authority  on  real  estate  as 
William  E.  Harmon,  of  New  York,  has  written,  in 
referring  to  a  bill  requiring  that  in  the  State  of  Wash- 
ington small  parks  and  playgrounds  shall  be  included 
in  all  future  land  sub-divisions — a  very  significant  bill, 
by  the  way — that,  while  it  is  "highly  important,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  true  economics,  that  no  undue 
burden  be  placed  upon  practical  work  in  the  field  of 
realty  development,  or  home  building,  on  a  large  scale, 
for  in  the  end  this  burden  must  be  borne  by  the  buyer, 
yet,  if  the  areas  of  land  segregated  are  properly  dis- 
tributed, so  that  the  adjacent  lots  have  either  a  front 
or  rear  exposure  upon  the  open  space,  the  added  value 
to  such  lots  will  compensate  for  the  land  given  up  to 
public  use.*  Again  he  says:f  "Could  we  have  seen 
ahead,  as  we  can  now  look  back,  we  would  immediately 
have  begun  the  segregation  of  lands  for  park  purposes 
in  all  our  subdivisions,  and  would  not  only  have  served 
the  community  better,  but  would  have  received  a 
return  in  dollars  and  cents  sufficient  to  amply  repay 
for  every  foot  of  ground  so  utilized. ' ' 

The    effect   of   park   proximity   upon    real    estate 
values  has  been  studied  in  various  communities  by 

*  See  The  Survey,  Feb.  26,  J910,  for  demonstration  of  this. 

t  In  paper  read  at  the  convention  of  the  American  Civic  Association, 
Nov.,  1909. 

160 


PUBLIC   RESERVATIONS   OTHER  THAN   THE   STREETS 

various  authorities.*  It  hardly  is  pertinent  to  this 
discussion  beyond  the  point  of  showing  that  in  this 
respect  the  town  planner  can  be  generous  without 
extravagance,  especially  if  the  planning  of  the  streets 
and  these  other  reservations  is  done  simultaneously. 
Nor  need  there  be  repeated  here  the  familiar  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  playgrounds,  athletic  fields  and 
parks  of  all  kinds.  We  may  assume  that  they  are  good 
things  for  a  community  to  havef — so  good  that,  in 
spite  of  their  cost,  they  increase,  rather  than  other- 
wise, the  saleability  of  house-lots,  provided  they  are 
intelligently  located  and  developed.  The  one  matter 
which  concerns  the  present  inquiry  is  their  connection 
with  the  streets  and  consequently  with  the  houselots. 
We  may  take  first  the  small  open  space.  This  is  of 
many  varieties  and  serves  divers  ends.  Historically 
it  was  the  market  square,  a  space  chiseled  out  of  the 
intricate  network  of  narrow  streets  and  made  big 
enough  to  hold  many  booths.  When  the  market  was 
not  in  session,  it  still  proved  its  community  usefulness. 
New  cities  were  built,  and  old  cities  rebuilt,  under 
modern  conditions,  but  the  open  space  was  retained 

*  A  convenient  reference  is  to  an  investigation  made  by  an  officially 
.appointed  committee  of  citizens  of  Madison,  Wis.  The  Eeport,  dated 
Marsh  11,  1909,  has  been  published  in  pamphlet  form  by  directors  of 
the  Madison  Park  and  Pleasure  Drive  Association. 

t  "I  have  spoken  of  the  utilization  of  public  reservations,  as  if  they 
were  to  be  expected  to  yield  only  health  and  enjoyment  and  improved 
powers  of  perception;  but  I  should  deal  with  the  subject  very  imper- 
fectly if  I  did  not  point  out  that  the  right  utilization  of  public  reserva- 
tions is  a  strong  agency  for  promoting  public  morality  and  a  high 
standard  of  family  life.  .  .  .  The  appropriate  pleasures  of  forest 
reservations  or  country  parks  are  all  cheering,  refining,  and  cleansing; 
they  are  soothing  and  uplifting;  they  separate  city  men  and  women 
from  the  squalor,  tumult,  and  transitoriness  of  the  human  ant-hill,  and 
bring  them  face  to  face  with  things  calm,  lovely,  grand,  and  enduring.*' 
— Charles  TT.  Eliot,  President  Emeritus,  Harvard  University. 

161 


THE    WIDTH   AND  ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

irrespective  of  market  use.  It  was  now  made  very 
open  and  very  spacious;  it  gained  an  air  of  magnifi- 
cence that  old  squares  did  not  have,  it  conveniently 
sorted  traffic — when  the  volume  was  not  too  heavy,  and 
it  afforded  an  opportunity  to  study  the  architecture  of 
abutting  buildings.  But  it  was  discovered,  after  a 
while,  that  somehow  the  charm  and  picturesqueness 
of  the  old  square  had  not  clung  to  the  new.  Then  we 
found  that  the  secret  of  the  former's  peculiar  attrac- 
tion was  the  sense  it  gave  of  enclosure.  The  mediaeval 
square  was  nearly  all  wall,  the  streets  stealing  into  it 
around  a  corner.  It  lay  at  the  side  of  the  main  street, 
rather  than  across  it;*  and  so  at  times  had  a  quiet, 
semi-private  air.  The  more  modern  square  was  nearly 
all  street,  and  was  designed  to  be  busy.  In  the  old  way 
of  planning,  one  stumbled  upon  the  open  space  as  a 
surprise.  In  the  later  way,  its  presence  was  known 
afar  off;  for  a  great  distance  it  was  the  dominating 
feature  of  the  converging  streets.  Thus  is  the  open 
space  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  rocks  upon 
which  have  split,  in  irreconcilable  difference,  the  two 
schools  of  town  planning — the  formal,  as  represented 
especially  by  the  French;  and  the  romantic,  as  rep- 
resented especially  by  the  Germans. 

But  there  is  room,  and  need,  for  both  kinds  of  open 
spaces.  In  good  town  planning  of  to-day  we  may 
expect  to  find  them  both.  Whether  they  are  paved 
plazas  in  the  business  district  or  gardens  in  the  resi- 
dence sections,  makes  little  difference  here,  since  only 
their  location  and  outline  plan  concerns  this  discussion. 
As  to  the  latter,  Mr.  Mawson  enunciates  the  following 
interesting  general  rule  in  his  " Civic  Art":  ' 'Under 
ordinary  circumstances  the  length  of  a  rectangular 

*  Note,  for  example,  the  open  spaces  of  old  Brussels,  as  shown  in 
the  frontispiece. 

162 


PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAN  THE  STREETS 

open  space  should  be  double  its  width,  and  the  longer 
diameter  of  an  oval  one  twice  the  length  of  the 
shorter."  But  this,  as  he  hastens  to  say,  is  a  broad 
generalization,  to  be  treated  more  as  a  groundwork, 
for  adaptation,  than  as  a  rule  to  be  pedantically 
followed. 

Aside  from  the  "squares"— to  give  them  the 
familiar  generic  name,  though  it  has  little  geometrical 
accuracy — there  are  the  small  left-over  spaces  of  the 
irregular  street  system,  of  much  potentiality  for  the 
beauty  or  the  ugliness  they  may  add  to  the  public  way. 
Usually  of  no  value  for  building  purposes,  their  reser- 
vation happily  involves  no  sacrifice  commensurate 
with  the  possibilities  they  bring.  Then  there  is  the 
small  space  created  for  the  deliberate  purpose  of 
enhancing  the  value  of  abutting  lots.  It  may  be  the 
fenced  garden  which  London  makes  familiar;  it  may 
be  an  outlook  point  to  widen  vistas  or  to  increase  the 
number  of  the  lots  from  which  a  view  may  be  had. 

There  are,  also,  to  be  sure,  abundant  examples  of  a 
city  block,  taken  out  of  the  market  and  stricken  from 
the  tax  lists  in  order  that  it  may  form  a  green  oasis 
in  the  midst  of  city  streets;  and  there  is  many  an 
example  of  good  building  land  having  precious  street 
frontage  which  has  been  transformed  into  a  play- 
ground. But  it  may  be  doubted  whether  such  develop- 
ments are  more  than  a  confession  of  inadequate  early 
planning — costly  efforts  to  provide  what  a  wiser  street 
platting  could  have  given  more  efficiently,  more  natur- 
ally and  more  cheaply.  Sometimes,  as  has  been 
indicated,  the  square  will  pay  for  itself  in  the  value  it 
adds  to  abutting  property ;  but  even  so  there  is  a  sense 
of  waste  in  that  its  net  addition  to  value  is  negligible 
in  amount.  As  to  the  playground,  it  is  almost  always. 

163 


THE  WIDTH   AND   ARRANGEMENT    OF  STREETS 


better  without  more  street  frontage  than  will  suffice 
for  an  adequate  entrance. 

The  location  of  playgrounds  inside  the  block  was 
suggested  in  the  preceding  chapter.  By  a  reduction  in 
the  length  of  gardens  that  is  not  sufficient  to  reduce 
their  practical  usefulness,  it  is  possible  to  save  out 
•enough  land  to  make  a  very  good  little  neighborhood 


Mary    Vale          Road 


LOCATING  THE  PLAYGROUND  INSIDE  THE  BLOCK 

A   section   of  the   street   platting   at   Bournville,    Eng.      Note   that   the 
special  entrance  to  the  playground  is  from  Bournville  Lane. 

park  or  playground.  That  is  to  say,  if  there  be  added 
into  one,  central,  common  mass  the  unimportant  sub- 
tractions made  from  all  the  backyards,  there  will  be 
gained  a  middle  area  of  sufficient  extent  to  be,  in  a 
region  where  it  is  necessary  for  the  community  to 
furnish  the  recreative  facilities,  of  real  value  to  the 
people  who  live  on  the  lots  which  enclose  it. 

Some  other  aspects  of  such  action  further  commend 

164 


PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAN  THE  STREETS 

it.  In  such  a  section,  an  area  of  this  kind  is  almost 
ideally  located  for  a  playground  for  small  children. 
Not  only  are  the  children  kept  off  the  street,  but  in 
their  play  they  are  beyond  the  gaze  of  passing  stran- 
gers and  idlers.  They  are  perfectly  safe,  and  are 
within  constant  sight  and  call  of  the  mothers  who,  in 
the  humble  homes,  are  more  likely  during  the  day  to  be 
at  the  back  of  the  house  than  in  the  front  rooms.  The 
space  is  not  large  enough  to  be  used  as  an  athletic  field 
by  men  and  older  boys,  and  hence  is  not  likely  to 
become  a  nuisance.  And  when  the  little  children  are 
through  with  it,  how  good  a  place  it  may  offer  through 
the  long  summer  evenings  for  tired  workers  to  sit  out- 
of-doors  in  neighborly  communion  !* 

The  placing  of  the  playground  here  makes  possible, 
also,  the  platting  of  longer  blocks  without  the  lengthen- 
ing of  houselots — as  we  saw  was  the  case  in  thus 
locating  allotment  gardens.  The  advantage  of  the 
longer  block  is  that  in  a  large  tract  it  means  the  build- 
ing of  fewer  streets — i.e.,  a  saving  in  the  costs  .of 
development  and  of  public  maintenance,  where  the 

*  In  this  connection,  it  may  be  well  to  quote  the  following  from  the 
Report,  of  the  New  Haven  Civic  Improvement  Commission  (Cass  Gilbert 
and  F.  L.  Olmsted,  1910)  :  "Consider  for  a  moment  the  waste  of  land 
in  deep  lots  for  city  dwellings,  taking  a  comparatively  open  standard 
of  urban  development  such  as  has  prevailed  in  New  Haven  in  the  past. 
A  given  tract  of  land  half  a  mile  square,  provided  with  streets  occupy- 
ing a  third  of  the  total  area,  will  subdivide  in  619  lots  of  the  [New 
Haven]  standard  she  of  50  x  150  feet.  In  such  a  district,  when  the  lots 
are  all  occupied,  there  will  be  no  playgrounds  for  the  children  except 
the  streets  and  the  backyards;  there  will  be  no  parks  or  squares  or 
other  open  ground  whatever.  If,  on  the  same  tract  with  the  same  area 
in  streets,  the  same  number  of  houses  should  be  erected  on  lots  of 
50x125  feet  in  sue,  there  would  be  left  over  17.7  acres  for  purposes 
of  public  recreation.  This  would  be  more  than  enough,  if  well  arranged, 
to  assure  for  all  time  that  every  boy  and  young  man,  who  will  ever  live 
in  taat  district,  shall  have  opportunity  and  inducement  near  his  own 
home  to  play  baseball  and  all  the  other  vigorous  outdoor  games  that 

165 


THE    WIDTH   AND   ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

traffic  makes  no  demand  for  more  generous  provision 
and  where  any  such  saving  means  much  to  the  house- 
holders. At  the  same  time,  the  arrangement  retains 
the  possibility  of  the  tract's  subdivision  into  smaller 
blocks  at  a  later  time,  should  conditions  justify  such 
action.  Finally,  back  land  costs  practically  nothing, 
while  land  with  street  frontage  would  have  a  value  that 
very  probably  would  make  sufficient  playgrounds  in 
such  regions  prohibitively  expensive. 

Of  course  there  will  not  be  need  of  a  playground 
inside  of  every  block  built  up  with  humble  homes. 
Some  may  have  allotment  gardens,  some  may  have 
small  parks,  or  places  for  the  entertainment  of  adults 
— as  bowling  greens,  quoit  grounds,  etc.  It  will  be 
necessary  consequently  to  provide  a  footpath  entrance, 
so  that  persons  who  do  not  live  in  the  block  may  be 
able  to  reach  the  pleasure  ground.  But  this  need  take 
only  five  feet  of  frontage,  and  perhaps  one  of  the  house- 
lots  can  be  sold  subject  to  the  granting  of  such  a  con- 
cession. To  the  example  of  this  kind  of  platting  offered 
by  Harborne,  England,  to  which  reference  has  been 
made,  there  may  be  added  that  of  Forest  Hills  Gardens 
in  the  United  States. 

Athletic  grounds  for  young  men  are  a  real  need  in 
all  industrial  communities.  They  should  be  accessible 
from  the  shop  and  from  the  home,  and  ought  to  be 

make  for  a  sound  body,  a  clean  mind  and  a  healthy  nervous  system;  to 
provide  space  that  could  be  set  apart  for  a  swimming  pool  to  be  put  in 
operation  whenever  the  neighborhood  or  the  city  might  feel  disposed  to 
pay  for  constructing  it  and  supplying  the  water;  to  provide  that  the 
little  children  could  have  a  shallow  pool  of  their  own,  with  a  clean  sandy 
beach  and  bottom  where  they  could  wade  and  play  with  toy  boats  and 
make  sand  pies  and  forts  as  well  as  if  they  were  to  be  taken  to  the 
ocean  beach  itself;  and  to  assure  that  for  all  time  the  dwellers  in  that 
district  would  have  only  to  walk  two  or  three  blocks  or  so  to  find  a  pleas- 
ant open  spot  with  shady  paths  and  benches  for  summer  use.  No  sane 
man  can  doubt  the  advantage  of  such  a  method  of  subdivision. ' ' 

166 


PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAN  THE  STREETS 

treated  as  an  essential  feature  in  the  planning  of 
industrial  sections  on  the  outskirts  of  cities.  AVhen 
practicable,  it  is  better  to  give  them  factory  surround- 
ings than  home  surroundings. 

As  to  the  public  parks  and  gardens,  there  must  be 
recognition  of  the  truth  that  no  public  provision  takes 
the  place  of  the  home-garden.  But  the  large  parks  can 
give  some  things  which  not  half  a  dozen  home-gardens 
of  the  city  are  able  to  give,  such  as  long,  soothing 
views;  the  tranquility  of  meadows;  the  peace  of 
woods, — nerve  antidotes  of  tremendous  value  in  the 
stress  and  strain  of  urban  life.  Or  they  may  preserve 
bits  of  scenery,  which  may  be  rightfully  considered  the 
proper  heritage  of  all  who  choose  a  given  city  as  a 
residence.  Even  at  best,  there  are  many  homes  whose 
occupants  would  have  no  gardens  of  any  kind  if  there 
wrere  no  parks.  Then,  again,  there  may  be  in  them  a 
wealth  of  bloom,  or  an  exotic  collection  of  such  rarity, 
value  and  interest  as  few  private  gardens  could  afford. 
If  we  expect  operatives  who  have  tedious  work  for 
long  hours  to  be  satisfied  to  live  out  of  the  congested 
portion  of  the  city,  we  must  grant  them  compensation 
for  the  loss  of  the  attractions  of  the  crowded  street  by 
providing  the  recreation,  amusement  and  education 
that  parks  can  give.  In  other  words,  the  dedication  of 
lands  for  park  purposes  in  any  residence  section  of 
the  city  does  not  fail  to  make  nearby  lands  more 
marketable.* 

*  It  may  be  observed  that  if  a  community  is  sufficiently  supplied 
with  parks  for  other  purposes,  a  pleasant  outlook  can  sometimes  be 
reserved  for  it  without  the  requirement  of  actual  public  ownership.  For 
example,  a  certain  shore  of  the  Aussen  Alster  at  Hamburg  was  originally 
wooded.  The  city  required  the  owners  to  cut  down  the  trees,  so  that  the 
view  might  be  enjoyed  from  the  Harvestehuder  Weg.  The  cleared  land 
was  thereupon  laid  out  in  gardens,  and  a  law  prohibited  the  erection  of 
houses  that  could  spoil  the  view. 

167 


THE   WIDTH   AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF   STREETS 

To  the  advantages  of  the  broadly  parked  street,  for 
the  poor  as  well  as  for  the  rich,  there  was  reference  at 
the  beginning  of  the  chapter.  A  convenient  illustra- 
tion is  to  be  found  at  Frankfort-on-Main.  In  the  Ger- 
man manner,  the  city  proposed  to  erect  some  new 
tenements.  It  was  decided  to  place  them  near  the 
Guenthersburg  Alle'e,  which  with  its  center  parking  is 
240  feet  wide,  in  order  that  it  might  be  easy  for  the 
occupants  of  the  houses  to  reach  "places  where  they 
could  enjoy  abundant  light  and  fresh  air,  and  either 
exercise  or  rest." 


AN  ARRANGEMENT  FOR  COMMUNITY  TENNIS  COURTS  PROPOSED  BY 
EAYMOND  UNWIN 

There  are  various  ways  of  developing  these  very 
wide  streets.  The  well  known  Unter  den  Linden,  in 
Berlin,  has  a  central  promenade  forty-two  feet  wide, 
tree  bordered  on  either  side.  The  Stubel  Alle'e,  Dres- 
den, has  a  garden  through  the  center,  and  on  either 
side  of  that  a  promenade  with  a  double  row  of  trees. 
Outside  each  promenade  is  the  car  track,  the  traffic 
road  and  then  the  sidewalk.  This  Alice's  total  width 
is  ISS1/^  feet.  Other  streets,  as  Rhein  Strasse  and 
Wilhelm  Strasse  in  Wiesbaden,  for  example,  have  a 
bridle  path  as  well  as  a  broad  promenade  for  pedes- 
trians. On  the  Champs  Elysees,  Paris,  where  the  tide 

168 


PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAN  THE  STREETS 


fi 


169 


THE    WIDTH   AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF  STREETS 

of  travel  is  so  mighty  that  pedestrians  would  find  it 
difficult  to  reach  the  center  of  the  thoroughfare,  the 
promenades — here  very  broad  graveled  ways  which 
are  planted  with  trees — are  at  the  sides. 

It  is  clear  that  such  streets  as  these  should  lead  to 
something.  They  should  have  an  objective  worthy  of 
their  splendor,  termini  in  keeping  with  their  character, 
and  such  as  will  furnish  or  attract  the  kind  of  travel 
that  can  appreciate  them.  In  the  remodeling  of  Con- 
tinental cities,  howrever,  the  demolition  of  encircling 
walls  has  offered  so  good  an  opportunity  for  building 
girdle  streets,  to  which  great  width  can  be  given  at 
little  cost,  that  the  benefits  of  such  streets,  plus  the 
chance  to  get  them  cheaply,  have  been  thought  to 
justify  their  creation  without  adequate  termini.  But 
as  a  town  planning  theory,  for  use  in  the  building  of 
new  towns  or  the  platting  of  town  extensions,  a  con- 
struction of  radial,  rather  than  of  circumferential, 
parks  and  parkways  is,  generally  speaking,  to  be  pre- 
ferred. H.  V.  Lanchester,  of  London,  has  put  the 
argument  for  the  former  briefly  and  well  in  saying: 
41  Where  special  circumstances  have  not  determined 
the  plan,  it  is  clear  that  a  series  of  parks  placed 
radially  is  the  more  reasonable  method.  For  one 
thing,  they  do  not  define  the  city  area  and  exercise  a 
restrictive  influence  on  the  space  within  them.  For 
another,  they  lead  from  the  more  densely  populate*  1 
areas  out  into  the  open  country,  thus  encouraging  a 
general  exodus  towards  it.  ...  This  is  a  much  more 
economical  method  than  the  ringstrasse,  as  the  land 
would  extend  into  the  open  unimproved  country  where 
land  could  be  obtained  at  agricultural  values." 

If  it  be  granted  that  thoroughfares  of  this  kind 
ought  to  have  worthy  objective,  what,  indeed,  could 
be  more  appropriate  than  a  park!  When  streets 

170 


PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAN  THE  STREETS 

like  these  join  park  to  park,  or  park  to  business  dis- 
trict, they  go  far  to  coalesce  park  units  into  a  park 
system,  and  so  to  knit  the  city's  pleasure  grounds  and 
beauty  spots,  as  they  should  be  knitted,  into  the  street 
plan — a  lovely  figure  woven  into  the  streets  as  warp 
and  woof  to  form  the  perfect  pattern  of  the  town. 

There  is  another  group  of  parked  streets,  to  which 
reference  must  be  made.  Less  ample  in  scale  and  less 
elaborately  developed  than  the  parkways,  they  yet 
serve  a  more  aesthetic  end  than  do  the  main  traffic 
thoroughfares  which  are,  or  are  likely  to  become, 
routes  for  rapid  transit.  These  are  streets  which 
carry  a  double  roadway  divided  by  comparatively 
narrow  center  parking,  besides  carrying  grass  margins 
between  the  sidewalks  and  the  curb.  In  Germany  such 
streets,  though  costly,  are  sometimes  put  through  the 
poorer  quarters  as  well  as  through  the  richer.  As  a 
result,  tall  tenements  line  them  where  the  people  are 
not  well-to-do.  The  more  normal  and  appropriate 
building  along  their  margins  is  that  of  the  costly 
individual  homes  with  which  in  America  they  are 
associated. 

The  development  given  to  the  center  parking  is 
varied.  The  looped  vines  and  gay  flowerbeds  of  Ger- 
many may  be  set  over  against  the  cement  bordered 
grass  plats  which  nearer  home  are  sometimes  suggest- 
ive of  monster  graves  through  the  center  of  the  street. 
But  if  the  street  rises,  and  this  tapis  vert  is  not  too 
often  and  conspicuously  broken  by  crossings,  this 
arrangement  has  much  to  commend  it.  More  often, 
low  growing  shrubs  and  bushes — as  roses — are  planted 
in  the  turf.  If  these  are  arranged  in  appropriately 
placed  groups,  rather  than  scattered  promiscuously, 
they  may  do  much  to  make  a  lovely  street.  Finally, 
trees  are  used  in  various  ways — low  conifers,  grouped 

171 


THE   WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

to  give  the  effect  of  shrub  planting  that  will  be  green 
the  year  round;  flowering  trees,  used  with  shrubs  or 
in  an  orderly  row;  old  trees,  kept  as  single  specimens 
for  their  beauty,  and  occasionally  conventional  shade 
trees. 


CENTER  PARKING  PLANTED  WITH  FLCHVERING  TREES 
Oxford  Street  in  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  with  magnolias  in  bloom. 

On  such  streets  each  roadway  can  be  quite  nar- 
row— say,  18  feet ;  for  on  each  the  travel  is  in  a  single 
direction,  and  there  is  only  the  need  that  the  moving 
vehicle  shall  be  able  to  pass  one  waiting  at  the  curb. 
The  center  parking  should  not  be  less  wide  than  is  a 
roadway.  Allowing  for  walks  and  side  parking,  eighty 

172 


PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAN  THE  STREETS 

feet,  then,  between  lot  frontages,  may  be  considered 
close  to  the  minimum  for  these  narrower  parked 
streets  that  are  not  main  traffic  highways. 

A  third  group  of  parklike  streets  is  represented  by 
those  which,  without  commercial  purpose,  skirt  a 
waterfront.  Now  and  then  passenger  steamers  may 
touch  at  the  shore;  but  the  essential  purpose  of  the 
street  is  to  furnish  an  attractive  promenade  rather 
than  to  serve  the  needs  of  navigation.  The  Thames 
Embankment,  London,  and  the  Rhein  Anlagen  of  Cob- 
lentz,  Bonn,  etc.,  are  types  of  this  kind  of  street.  No 
general  rule  can  be  laid  down  for  their  width,  though 
it  is  desirable  that  there  be  space  for  seats.  Their 
significance  as  regards  this  volume  is,  (1)  the  example 
which  they  offer  of  that  use  of  natural  opportunities 
in  the  street  planning  which,  at  the  minimum  of  cost, 
gives  the  maximum  of  service;  (2)  their  exemplifica- 
tion of  the  park-usefulness  of  certain  streets. 

As  aesthetic  considerations  are  of  special  value  on 
streets  of  parklike  character,  their  purpose  being 
rather  to  add  to  the  beauty  and  stateliness  of  the  town 
than  to  accommodate  traffic — which,  indeed,  is  some- 
times restricted  upon  them — it  may  be  well  to  empha- 
size again  the  need  of  proportioning  length  to  breadth, 
and  of  avoiding  loss  of  perspective  and  monotony  of 
aspect  by  arranging  breaks  or  accents  to  rest  the  eye. 
It  was  suggested  in  the  chapter  on  Main  Traffic  Streets 
that  these  might  well  come  at  intervals  of  approxi- 
mately three-quarters  of  a  mile.  Sometimes  half  a 
mile  will  be  better,  the  conspicuousness  of  the  break, 
the  width  of  the  street  and  its  gradient  being  of  course 
factors  of  much  influence.* 

*  Thomas  H.  Mawson  has  collected  in  his  ' '  Civic  Art ' '  some  inter- 
esting illustrations  of  the  provision  of  such  breaks.  He  says:  "In  the 
design  for  Lord  Street,  Southport,  the  Campanile,  and  in  Dunfewnlinej 

173 


THE   WIDTH   AND  ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

A  slight  change  of  direction  is  often  the  most  avail- 
able means  of  securing  the  break  in  parkways  and 
boulevards,  where  the  shortening  of  distance  and 
directness  of  connection  are  not-  primary  needs  and 
where  it  may  not  be  easy  to  secure  an  architectural  or 
sculptural  accent.  For  such  change  the  curve  is 
usually  to  be  preferred,  and  it  ought  to  be  a  curve  of 
long  radius,  the  point  of  transition  from  straight  line 
to  curved  having  definite  mark.  Another  device  is  the 
broadening  into  an  open  space,  as  suggested  in  Chap- 
ter V.  Where  curves  are  used  a  serpentine  line  is  to 
be  avoided,  if  stateliness  of  effect  is  desired.  But 
sometimes  the  purpose  is  picturesqueness  rather  than 
stateliness,  and  in  such  cases  a  parkway  can  be  serpen- 
tine. The  tree  planting  then  should  be  informal,  for 
obviously  a  regular  spacing  of  the  trees  on  a  serpen- 
tine road  would  defeat  its  object.  Nor  should  ser- 
pentine roads  be  broad  ones. 

We  come  now  to  sites  for  public  buildings.  The 
reservation  of  these  at  the  time  when  streets  are 
platted  and  parks  located,  is  a  more  forehanded 
measure  than  American  towns  seem  generally  ready 
for — though  it  is  an  accepted  part  of  some  European 
city  planning.  No  doubt  the  average  "practical" 

the  four  towers  flanking  either  side  of  the  road  through  Pittenerieff 
Park,  were  intended  to  supply  the  necessary  break,  whilst  on  the  grand 
boulevard,  which  was  proposed  for  the  connection  of  Dunfermline  with 
the  new  naval  base  at  Eosyth  Bay,  the  end  was  to  be  marked  by  pylon- 
like  towers.  Owing  to  its  somewhat  steep  gradient,  which  would  fore- 
shorten the  perspective,  a  greater  proportion  of  length  to  width  than  is 
usual  could  here  be  allowed.  In  laying  out  new  cities,  as  well  as  in 
remodelling  old  ones,  cases  must  often  occur  where  it  is  advisable  to 
construct  boulevards  for  a  distance  considerably  in  excess  of  due  pro- 
portions, and  where  none  of  the  aids  to  proportion  proposed  at  South- 
port  or  Dunfermline  are  possible;  innumerable  devices  have  been 
resorted  to  to  meet  this  difficulty.  The  first  and  most  usur.1  is  the  ronda 
or  circus,  of  which  the  Place  de  1  'Etoile,  Place  de  la  Nation,  and  Place 
d  'Italie  in  Paris  are  notable  examples. ' ' 

174 


PUBLIC   RESERVATIONS  OTHER  THAN  THE  STREETS 

person  is  inclined  to  dismiss  such  a  project  as  too 
great  a  venture  into  the  speculative  field  to  warrant 
municipal  action.  But  really  it  is  pretty  safe  specula- 
tion. Under  a  town  planning  scheme,  a  tract  of 
agricultural  land  is  laid  out  into  streets,  with  certain 
areas  reserved  for  parks  and  playgrounds  of  one  kind 
or  another.  The  population  that  is  to  occupy  the  tract 
is  foreseen — its  limits  fairly  well  set  by  the  character 
of  the  platting,  and  perhaps  indeed  set  absolutely  by 
a  law  limiting  the  number  of  houses  per  acre.  That  in 
a  growing  city  the  population  will  by  degrees  come  up 
to,  or  come  very  close  to,  the  established  limit,  there  is 
no  reason  to  doubt.  It  may  be  assumed,  then,  as  a 
known  quantity  in  determining  what  provision  to 
make. 

The  school  authorities  know  just  how  many  chil- 
dren must  be  provided  for  in  any  given  population; 
exactly  the  size  of  the  building  that  must  be  erected  to 
accommodate  those  children  properly,  and  precisely 
the  schoolyard  area  which  a  building  of  that  sort  ought 
to  have.  In  other  words,  given  the  platting  of  the 
tract,  the  school  area  that  should  be  provided  can  be 
definitely  foreseen ;  and  this  being  so,  why  is  it  not  the 
part  of  wisdom  to  reserve  that  area  in  the  places  most 
desirable  for  such  use  before  values  have  advanced? 
As  with  regard  to  the  schools,  so  with  reference  to 
fire-houses,  police  stations,  branch  libraries,  etc. 

If  it  be  objected  that  a  long  time  may  elapse  before 
the  influx  of  population  will  make  public  structures 
necessary,  the  reply  is  that  no  buildings  need  be 
erected  until  they  are  required.  The  only  investment 
is  in  the  land,  and  by  securing  that  at  the  time  when 
streets  are  platted  the  investment  is  made  on  a  safe 
basis  and  does  not  represent  a  large  sum.  Further, 
experience  suggests  that  the  ultimate  saving  in  not 

175 


THE   WIDTH  AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF   STREETS 

having  to  buy  lots  at  high  values  after  the  population 
has  come,  and  then  having  to  enlarge  the  lots  at  still 
higher  prices  when  the  population  has  grown,  will 
much  more  than  balance  the  interest  on  the  invest- 
ment— even  assuming  that  the  land  stood  idle  in  the 
meantime. 

The  action  precisely  corresponds  to  the  reservation 
of  lands  for  parks ;  it  is  even  more  conservative  than 
building  sewers  and  laying  water  mains  which  in  size 
anticipate  future  demands.  It  has  the  further  advan- 
tage that  it  makes  possible  not  only  the  most  efficient 
setting  of  the  public  buildings,  but  also  the  most 
economical,  and  the  most  effective  architecturally. 
The  school,  for  instance,  may  adjoin  the  playground,* 
and  so  without  detriment  have  its  own  yard  reduced 
in  size.  The  library  may  face  a  park,  that  will  insure 
a  setting  for  its  building  and  quiet  for  its  readers. 
The  fire-house  may  be  placed  at  a  forking  of  streets, 
to  the  saving  of  precious  minutes.  It  may  be  possible, 
using  a  small  open  space  as  nucleus,  or  a  grand  avenue 
as  their  setting,  to  group  the  public  buildings  and  so 
to  establish  a  local  civic  center. 

There  has  been  a  mistaken  tendency,  which  now  is 
passing  rapidly,  to  associate  a  city's  parks  and  park- 
ways with  the  more  well-to-do  portion  of  the  com- 
munity. If  in  this  discussion  it  has  seemed  that  the 
needs  of  the  people  of  smaller  means,  and  the  service 
which  the  town  planner  may  render  to  them  and  to  the 
sections  in  which  they  live,  has  had  especial  emphasis, 
an  excuse  may  be  found  in  the  numerical  predomi- 
nance of  the  wage-earners  in  modern  cities.  It  has 
been  estimatedf  that,  taking  one  city  and  town  with 

*  See  illustration  on  page  105. 

t  Prof.  Eberstadt,  in  an  address  delivered  at  Wiesbaden  to  visiting 
representatives  of  the  National  Housing  Reform  Council  of  England. 

176 


PUBLIC   RESERVATIONS    O1HER   THAN    THE   STREETS 

another,  ninety-two  per  cent  of  city  residents  are  rep- 
resented by  workmen  and  their  families  and  only  eight 
per  cent  by  the  professional  and  wealthier  class.  Just 
where  the  line  is  drawn — the  point  upon  which  the 
accuracy  and  significance  of  the  figures  wholly  depend 
—is  not  stated ;  but  at  least  they  indicate  that  the  town 
of  to-day,  unlike  the  ancient  city,  is  a  community  in 
which  a  great  majority  of  the  people  are  economically 
below  the  standard,  once  represented  in  overwhelming 
numbers,  of  old  time  burghers,  merchants  and  crafts- 
men. Town  planning  finds  its  only  motive  and  justifi- 
cation in  the  betterment  of  social  conditions- 
conditions  of  living  and  working;  and  the  final  test 
of  its  merit  must  be  the  degree  to  which  it  does  this  for 
the  masses  of  city  dwellers. 


177 


CONCLUSION 

IN  drawing  this  volume  to  its  conclusion,  a  hun- 
dred lines  of  thought  invite  consideration.  It  is  as  if, 
in  turning  one's  back  on  a  fascinating  city,  of  which 
there  has  been  time  for  only  a  glimpse,  one  stood  at 
the  station  upon  an  elevated  plaza  from  which  led 
many  streets  of  alluring  vista.  Some  of  the  roads  are 
broad  and  straight,  some  are  narrow  and  devious;  but 
all  seem  enticingly  to  beckon,  making  one  loth  to  leave 
until  their  mysteries  have  been  explored.  One  cannot 
feel  that  full  justice  has  been  done  the  city  until  one 
knows  those  streets.  Yet  time  is  up,  the  bell  rings  and 
the  whistle  blows. 

Perhaps  the  dominating  thought  must  be  the  big- 
ness of  the  subject,  its  interest,  its  importance,  its  grip 
on  the  urgent  things  of  life.  Consideration  of  the 
width  and  arrangement  of  streets,  far  from  being  a 
by-path  of  investigation,  proves  a  broad  highway.  All 
the  currents  of  life,  all  the  grades  of  society,  are 
intimately  affected  by  the  problems  it  includes.  The 
joy  and  pain  of  urban  existence,  the  comfort  or  hard- 
ship of  it,  its  efficiency  or  failure  are  influenced  by  the 
wisdom  or  the  thoughtlessness  with  which  streets  are 
platted. 

The  street,  thus  studied,  gains  a  new  dignity  and 
value.  No  more  can  it  be  despised.  We  shall  not  dare 
to  speak  in  reproach  of  those  whose  existence  is  closely 
bound  to  it — as  "the  children  of  the  street,"  the 
"women  of  the  street"  —for  we  find  that  the  fortunes 

178 


CONCLUSION 

of  us  all  are  affected  by  it.  It  is  more  than  a  passage- 
way, though  even  as  a  passage-way  it  is  the  channel 
of  the  common  life.  It  makes  the  boundary  of  our 
homes,  it  gives  us  our  outlook  upon  the  world.  In 
fact,  the  streets  make  the  cities  wrhat  they  are,  and  the 
cities  make  the  world.  When  we  study  how  best  to 
plan  the  streets — not  the  main  highways  only,  nor  only 
the  great  show  avenues,  but  the  minor  streets  as  well— 
we  have  no  mean  subject.  "I  fancy,"  said  a  student 
of  city  progress  in  a  recent  address,*  "that  the  civic 
renaissance  which  must  surely  come,  which  indeed  has 
already  appeared  in  its  sporadic  beginnings,  will  never 
get  very  far  until  we  have  awakened  to  a  realization 
of  the  dignity  of  the  street — the  common  street,  where 
the  city's  children  play,  through  which  the  milk  wagon 
drives,  where  the  young  men  are  educated,  along  which 
the  currents  of  the  city's  life  flow  unceasingly." 

The  street,  then,  is  to  be  thought  of,  not  as  a  line 
in  a  drawing,  not  as  a  mark  on  a  map ;  but  as  a  living 
thing.  This  quality  of  it,  which  adds  so  vastly  to  the 
interest  of  the  problem,  adds  glso  to  its  difficulty.  For 
it  requires  that  our  plans  must  not  be  too  rigid.  Con- 
ditions change,  people  migrate ;  the  lot  unit  which  well 
suits  a  neighborhood  to-day  may  be  too  large,  or  too 
small,  for  the  uses  which  are  to  characterize  that 
neighborhood  two  generations  hence.  This  flexibility 
of  plan  must  be  secured  mainly  through  the  minor 
streets. 

Great  highways  cannot  readily  be  changed.  Their 
location  must  be  determined  by  fundamental  con- 
siderations that  can  only  change  slowly,  if  they  change 
at  all.  These  highways  cut  the  city  area  into  large 
main  blocks;  and  it  is  in  the  subdivision  of  these  by 
the  minor  streets  that  there  must  lie  the  flexibility  of 

*  Dr.  Delos  F.  Wilcox,  before  the  City  Club  of  Philadelphia,  1910. 

179 


THE  WIDTH    AND  ARRANGEMENT   OF   STREETS 

the  plan.  As  was  stated  in  an  early  chapter,  the  city 
planner  is  not  infallible.  Though  he  be  an  admirable 
diagnostician,  new  conditions  will  create  new  needs. 
His  main  lines  can  be  strong,  confident  and  firm;  but 
between  them  there  must  be  the  possibility  of  trans- 
formation. There  could  hardly  be  graver  fault  than 
to  adopt  a  city  plan  with  a  sense  of  finality,  fancying 
that  there  never  will  be  need  of  fitting  and  moulding 
it  to  meet  changing  conditions. 

Yet  town  planning  does  unmistakably  tend  toward 
stability.  If,  for  instance,  an  industrial  section  grows 
up,  in  response  to  the  exceptionally  satisfactory  pro- 
vision of  transportation  and  other  facilities,  that 
section  will  not  readily  move.  This  will  be,  in  part, 
because  when  new  facilities  are  to  be  added,  the  temp- 
tation and  pressure  to  add  them  to  the  same  district, 
where  existing  plants  can  at  once  make  use  of  them, 
will  be  almost  irresistible.  The  permanency  of  the 
factory  district  will  fix  the  location  of  the  employees' 
housing  section,  and  the  location  of  houses  does  much 
to  determine  the  location  of  stores.  Cities  grow — but 
not,  in  the  often  quoted  phrase,  as  Topsy  grew.  The 
city  is  the  most  artificial  of  creations.  Every  street  is 
deliberately  staked  out ;  its  direction,  its  width,  and  its 
subdivisions  determined  consciously  in  advance.  City 
growth  is  directed  growth;  and  the  more  firmly  it  is 
in  our  power  to  direct  that  growth,  by  comprehensive 
scheme  and  central  control,  the  less  vacillation  there 
will  be  in  its  development. 

And  stability,  no  doubt,  is  a  good  thing.  There  is 
always  economic  waste  in  the  abandonment  of  the  old 
for  the  new.  Moreover,  a  constantly  shifting  popula- 
tion is  not  as  easily  governed,  or  as  well  fitted  to 
govern  itself,  as  one  which  has  such  permanency  of 
habitation  that  civic  affection  and  civic  pride  has  a 

180 


CONCLUSION 

chance  to  take  root.  A  platting  of  streets,  so  wise  and 
well  thought  out  that  there  will  be  little  temptation 
to  change  it  as  the  years  go  by,  will  do  more  than  per- 
haps most  of  us  realize  to  bring  about  good  municipal 
government  and  contented  urban  populations. 

Considered,  then,  as  an  art,  the  purpose  of  town 
planning  is,  briefly,  to  "do  for  the  city  what  the  archi- 
tecture does  for  the  home."  The  architect  accepts  as 
fundamental  the  home's  human  service,  and  the  use  of 
different  parts  of  it  for  different  purposes.  He  does 
not  put  the  nursery  on  the  north  side  where  the 
children  will  have  no  sunlight;  he  does  not  put  the 
kitchen  at  the  front  and  the  drawing-room  next  beyond. 
He  does  not  build  in  such  a  way  that  no  change  will 
ever  be  possible.  Continuous  healthfulness,  conven- 
ience, comfort,  and  beauty  are  all  desired  and  are  all 
sought  by  a  single  rule — that  of  order  and  common- 
sense  and  with  the  possibility  of  moderate  changes 
when,  to  gain  the  desired  end,  such  changes  become 
necessary. 

Taking  another  point  of  view,  a  business  man,  pro- 
posing to  create  a  new,  or  to  improve  the  efficiency  of 
an  old,  commercial  or  industrial  plant — which  is  the 
business  aspect  of  city  life — sets  about  it  with  a  plan. 
He  adjusts  parts  to  functions.  He  does  not  put  his 
warehouses  at  the  end  of  the  tract  away  from  railroad 
sidings,  as  we  sometimes  do  in  the  hit-or-miss  building 
of  cities ;  he  does  not  scatter  interdependent  units,  as 
we  almost  always  do  when  building  cities.  By  order, 
system,  and  forethought  he  seeks  to  save  energy  and 
time.  It  is  so  in  wise  city  planning. 

Again,  the  architect  in  building  the  home  considers 
(1)  the  owner,  (2)  the  tenant,  and  (3)  the  community. 
The  town  planner  may  well  put  his  project  to  the  like 
threefold  test.  He  must  ask  himself,  how,  first,  does 

181 


THE    WIDTH   AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF   STREETS 

it  affect  landowners,  those  owners — municipal,  cor- 
porate, or  individual — of  large  tracts  on  the  outskirts 
of  towns,  whose  subdivisions  determine  the  manner 
of  the  city's  extension  and  the  future  welfare  of  its 
people?  If  it  be  not  just  to  them,  and  even  advan- 
tageous to  them,  progress  cannot  be  anticipated  save 
by  a  revolutionary  social  upheaval.  Second,  how  does 
it  affect  the  individual  home  owners — "ultimate  con- 
sumers" in  the  field  of  city  planning — to  whom  the 
lots  in  the  large  tracts  are  sold!  It  must  be  just  to 
them  and  to  their  advantage,  or  the  subject  does  not 
deserve  consideration.  Third,  how  does  it  affect  the 
community  ? 

It  is  impracticable  to  go  over  all  the  arguments. 
In  the  preceding  pages  the  question  has  been  looked 
at  from  many  points  of  view.  It  has  seemed  that  a 
well  thought  out,  reasonable  system  of  street  platting, 
undertaken  with  foresight,  must  necessarily  be  to  the 
advantage  of  all  tract  owners.  No  one  who  owned  a 
tract  would  think  of  cutting  it  up  until  he  had  in  mind 
a  plan  for  the  whole.  If  that  is  the  course  of  common- 
sense  with  reference  to  a  comparatively  limited  estate, 
it  must  be  the  proper  procedure  with  reference  to  the 
town — a  vastly  larger  and  more  important  estate.  The 
inter-relation  between  lot  and  tract,  and  tract  and 
town,  is  similar. 

A  point,  however,  to  be  noted  here,  is  that  a  large 
owner  of  real  estate  might  be  fully  persuaded  of  the 
advantage  of  town  planning  methods,  but  unless  the 
community  had  town  planning  powers — the  authority, 
the  central  control,  and  the  ability  to  grant  the  privi- 
leges that  can  be  granted  where  there  are  such  powers 
—he  might  be  entirely  helpless,  as  regards  the  service 
which  he  might  render  to  the  community  or  to  himself 
by  putting  his  good  ideas  with  reference  to  street 

182 


CONCLUSION 

platting  into  effect.  If,  through  ownership  of  a  com- 
plete tract,  he  were  able  to  do  anything,  it  would  be 
only  in  a  limited  way,  and  with  the  danger  that  his 
neighbor  by  an  inharmonious  development  might  ruin 
all  he  had  done. 

To  the  large  owner  of  real  estate,  therefore,  town 
planning  does  mean  hope.  And  it  is  advantageous  to 
him  in  another  way.  Instead  of  leaving  him  dependent 
upon  his  own  scant  knowledge  of  the  subject,  or  at  the 
mercy  of  any  conveniently  obtainable  surveyor  or 
landscape  engineer,  it  makes  available  for  solving  his 
special  problems  the  best  experience  and  thought  that 
the  community  can  engage.  This  will  study,  for 
instance,  the  most  advantageous  size  and  shape  pos- 
sible to  be  given  to  the  lots  into  which  his  tract  will 
be  cut ;  if  he  has  waste  lands  that  he  can  hardly  hope 
to  sell  for  building  purposes,  at  any  rate  not  without 
very  costly  development,  it  may  order  the  community 
to  buy  those  lands  for  park  purposes.  And  it  would 
have  the  authority  to  enforce  its  recommendations.  It 
would  insure  him  against  sudden  depreciation  of 
values  through  spite,  ignorance  or  indifference  by 
owners  of  adjacent  lands,  or  by  the  community  itself. 
Even  in  setting  limits  to  the  intensiveness  with  which 
an  owner  could  use  his  land,  it  does  not  necessarily, 
as  we  have  seen,  lessen  his  net  profits.  The  purpose 
of  city  planning,  as  Lawson  Purdy,  President  of  the 
New  York  City  Department  of  Taxes  and  Assess- 
ments, has  well  said,  is  so  to  plat  the  public  property 
that  the  land  which  is  privately  owned  may  be  put  to 
the  best  usefulness. 

With  regard  to  the  individual  home  owner,  he  is 
the  one  for  whom,  in  the  last  analysis,  streets  are 
platted.  Unless  they  make  for  his  convenience  and 
his  comfort,  unless  they  give  him  a  good  home  and 

183 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

facilitate  the  transaction  of  his  business,  they  have 
failed  in  their  purpose.  It  is  important  to  keep  this 
in  mind.  Though  we  should  give  to  him,  in  our  social 
•enthusiasm,  churches,  parliaments,  schools,  libraries, 
baths  and  workhouses — as  altruism  has  generously 
done — and  though  we  should  group  some  of  these  in  a 
very  effective  center,  if  we  forget  the  facilitation  of  a 
wholesome  family  life  and  personal  efficiency,  we  shall 
fail  to  serve  him  in  the  best  way.  As  for  town  plan- 
ning's  special  consideration  of  childhood,  the  hope  of 
every  country  is  in  its  children. 

Good  street  platting  will  not  do  everything  for  the 
individual  or  the  family,  but  it  can  help  much.  The 
book  has  tried  to  emphasize  this  relation.  Even  when 
considering  the  subject's  financial  rather  than  social 
aspect,  it  has  dwelt  more,  it  will  be  observed,  on  the 
economy  of  town  planning  for  the  individual,  than  on 
its  saving  for  the  community. 

Yet  the  third  question,  the  effect  of  the  plan  upon 
the  community  at  large,  is  very  pertinent.  There  are 
two  points  of  view.  The  readiest  judgment  is  that,  as 
the  community  is  simply  the  sum  of  the  individuals 
who  compose  it,  whatever  makes  for  their  betterment 
makes  for  the  good  of  the  whole.  In  the  largest  sense, 
this  is  true.  Yet  there  are  some  things  in  which  the 
community  must  take  co-operative  action,  and  for 
which  individual  welfare  and  the  individual  viewpoint 
are  not  enough.  For  instance,  it  is  by  no  means  as 
certain  as  some  one  assumed  who  said,  "when  Mr. 
Smith,"  as  typifying  the  individual,  "possesses  in 
peace  his  own  solid  little  home,  he  will  attend  to  the 
town  hall."  He  may  be  so  snug  in  his  little  home,  it 
may  so  cramp  his  naturally  narrow  vision,  that  he  will 
decline  to  be  interested  in  a  town  hall.  Lawrence 
Veiller,  secretary  of  the  National  Housing  Association 

184 


CONCLUSION 

in  America,*  has  said,  that  "the  small  property  owner, 
with  limited  resources,  ...  is  the  greatest  obstacle 
to  progress.  Burdened  as  he  is,  limited  in  his  intel- 
ligence, his  own  standard  of  living  low,  his  knowledge 
of  sanitary  science  practically  nil,  it  is  not  strange 
that  he  should  not  place  the  welfare  of  the  community 
above  that  of  self-interest  and  should  not  divorce,  in 
his  consideration  of  public  questions,  their  effect  on 
his  own  pocket  from  their  value  to  his  neighbors  and 
to  posterity. "  The  small  property  owner's  conserva- 
tism, fortunate  when  in  moderation,  becomes,  when 
carried  to  the  length  of  narrowness  and  selfishness,  the 
bulwark  of  that  false  public  economy  which  is  respon- 
sible for  so  many  of  the  shortcomings  of  towns  and 
cities. 

Now,  a  first  principle  of  town  planning  is  con- 
sideration for  the  rights  of  others.  It  finds  its  base  in 
community  spirit;  it  does  give  the  large  view;  it 
simplifies  co-operation  for  the  common  good.  This  is 
its  great  and  precious  community  contribution. 

Secondarily,  it  means  also,  as  has  been  hinted r 
economy  for  the  community.  J.  S.  Nettlefold,  writing 
in  1908,  declared  that  a  careful  compilation  seemed  to 
establish  it  as  a  fact  that  in  the  preceding  ten  years 
"not  less  than  £30,000,000,  which  town  planning  would 
have  saved,  had  been  expended"  for  street  widening, 
slum  clearances,  the  provision  of  open  spaces,  and  such 
improvements  .by  English  towns.  He  stated  that  in 
his  own  (the  Birmingham)  committee,  2,105  unsani- 
tary houses  had  been  dealt  with  during  the  last  five 
years,  a  period  during  which,  he  thought,  Birmingham 
had  done  rather  less  proportionately  than  other  cities. 

Finally,  it  may  be  remarked  that  a  well  organized 

*  Article  in  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  ami 
Social  Science. 

185 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

society  tends  to  express  itself  in  an  organized,  dig- 
nified and  individualistic  way.  The  city  with  a  well 
developed  civic  consciousness  will  ultimately  have  a 
formal  and  dignified  civic  center,  representative  of  its 
official  entity.  Without  town  planning,  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  a  community  is  well  organized;  with 
it,  there  is  no  question  as  to  that,  and  if  the  premises 
are  correct  we  may  expect  a  civic  center  to  develop 
as  an  entirely  natural  part  of  the  plan.  It  will  not 
be  forced,  or  exotic  in  character  or  expression ;  on  the 
contrary,  it  will  gain  its  charm  and  interest  through 
being  marked  by  the  individuality  of  the  city — the 
most  precious  quality  the  city  has. 

With  the  civic  center,  however,  this  volume,  having 
to  dp  with  the  width  and  arrangement  of  streets,  is  not 
closely  concerned.  It  is  enough  to  point  out  that  of 
real  city  planning  the  civic  center  is  a  by-product,  not 
the  whole  thing — as  its  spectacular  appeal  has  some- 
times led  people  to  believe.  It  is  a  flower,  significant, 
as  are  various  others,  of  the  health  of  the  plant  of 
civic  spirit — of  its  maturity  into  beauty.  And  until 
beauty  is  the  product,  wTe  shall  know — as  we  know  in 
all  work — that  perfection  is  still  before  us.  In  plan- 
ning towns,  we  have  to  realize  that  no  social  order  is 
ideal,  no  engineering  faultless,  no  efficiency  complete 
until  expressed  in  beauty.  So,  by  the  like  test,  the 
streets  of  the  city  will  not  be  properly  arranged  until, 
with  their  adjustment  to  purpose,  beauty  has 
appeared. 


APPENDIX 


CERTAIN  PRINCIPLES  OF  A  UNIFORM  CITY 
PLANNING  CODE 

EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  PRELIMINARY  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  ON" 
LEGAL  AND  ADMINISTRATIVE  METHODS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  CON- 
FERENCE ON  CITY  PLANNING.  PRESENTED  TO  THE  CONFERENCE. 
AT  PHILADELPHIA,  1911. 

BY  ANDREW  WRIGHT  CRAWFORD,  CHAIRMAN, 
Assistant  City  Solicitor  of  Philadelphia. 

THE  Executive  Committee  of  the  National  Conference  on  City 
Planning  has  suggested,  to  its  Committee  on  Legal  and  Administra- 
tive Methods,  the  preparation  of  a  uniform  City  Planning  Code. 
Sweden,  England  and  America  offer  precedents  for  such  a  code,  but 
these  precedents  are  decidedly  limited.  The  English  Town  Planning 
Act,  passed  in  1909,  under  the  leadership  of  John  Burns,  M.P.,  is 
the  English  precedent,  but  the  constitution  of  our  States  and  of 
the  United  States  prevent  it  from  being  of  much  assistance  to  us, 
although  its  general  objects  and  principles  might  be  incorporated  in 
an  enactment  specially  framed  to  meet  our  needs. 

The  uniformity  of  an  American  code  is  suggested  by  the  Uniform 
Negotiable  Instruments  Law,  passed  by  forty  States,  and  the  Acts 
on  Sales  and  certain  other  topics  now  being  considered  by  the  Leg- 
islatures of  the  several  States,  to  avoid  the  medley  of  decisions 
arising  from  different  interpretations  of  the  common  law. 

Any  code  of  city  planning,  with  our  present  knowledge  of  the 
subject,  can  be  but  tentatively  drawn.  This  was  recognized  by  the 
Executive  Committee  in  its  suggestion  that  a  preliminary  draft  only 
of  a  city  planning  code  should  be  submitted,  with  the  expectation 
that  it  will  be  recommitted  to  the  succeeding  committee  on  Legal 
and  Administrative  Methods  for  such  changes,  alterations  and 
additions  as  may  appear  desirable  as  the  result  of  the  deliberations 
of  this  congress.  As  your  researches  reach  more  and  more  under 
the  surface,  into  the  relationship  of  the  different  elements  that  enter 
into  city  planning,  and  as  the  natural  laws  that  control  such  rela- 
tionships are  more  and  more  clearly  discovered  and  enunciated,  the 
provisions  of  the  statutory  law  that  should  be  enacted  accordingly 
will  be  more  and  more  clearly  defined. 

The  subject  is  difficult  because  of  the  varying  laws  already  in 
existence  throughout  the  Union.  That  the  laws  in  each  State  are 
entitled  to  consideration  is  obvious  from  any  practical  point  of 

189 


THE  WIDTH  AND  ARRANGEMENT  OF  STREETS 

view.  Each  State  is  the  sole  judge  of  the  functions  which  are  to 
be  delegated  to  its  cities.  As  the  city  is  hut  an  arm  of  the  State, 
and  therefore  a  mere  agent,  it  can  generally  exercise  no  power  or 
authority  which  is  not  specifically  or  by  necessary  implication  con- 
ferred upon  it.  When  there  are  forty-six  different  legislatures  with 
varying  knowledge  of  the  needs  of  cities  or  of  their  relative  import- 
ance, of  the  questions  social  as  well  as  governmental  that  they 
present,  it  is  but  to  be  expected  that  the  charter  powers  of  munici- 
palities throughout  the  United  States  will  differ  even  in  important 
respects  from  the  charter  powers  of  other  cities  of  the  same  class. 


SCOPE  OF  PROPOSED  CODE 

Before  the  preparation  of  even  preliminary  drafts  of  acts,  it 
was  necessary  to  determine  the  conclusion  that  the  Committee  should 
come  to  in  regard  to  the  scope  of  the  code.  An  act  that  wipes  out 
existing  authorities  and  substitutes  a  different  body  will  meet  the 
political  opposition  of  all  existing  authorities  and  will  have  much 
less  chance  of  passage.  Should  a  City  Planning  Code  upset  existing 
authorities  or  should  it  be  so  worded  that,  with  necessary  changes, 
it  can  readily  be  made  to  fit  into  existing  municipal  governmental 
schemes?  Should  an  entirely  new  body  be  given  authority  to  plat 
the  streets  of  a  municipality,  or  should  a  new  board  be  given 
authority  to  supervise  the  platting  of  city  streets  by  the  body 
already  in  existence  to  make  it  homogeneous  with  the  schemes  of 
other  departments?  Should  a  new  scheme  in  toto  be  devised,  taking- 
advantage  of  all  that  has  been  learned  and  of  every  suggestion  that 
can  be  made  by  different  cities,  or  should  a  city  plan'ning  depart- 
ment to  act  from  the  broad  point  of  view  of  wise  policy  in  city 
planning  be  devised  which  shall  interfere  with  existing  machinery 
as  little  as  possible?  This  Conference  is  a  practical  body  brought 
together  to  get  practical  results.  The  best  way  to  get  these  results 
is  to  secure  their  adoption  in  principle,  without  too  great  concern 
over  details.  It  has  therefore  seemed  to  your  Committee  the  wiser 
policy,  at  this  stage  of  the  development  of  city  planning,  to  pro- 
vide for  a  new  body  to  be  superimposed  upon  existing  authorities, 
who  themselves  shall  be  represented  in  that  body,  rather  than  to 
attempt  to  create  a  complete  substitute.  For  this  the  Connecticut 
Act  that  created  the  Hartford  City  Plan  Commission  offers  valuable 
suggestions. 

As  it  appears  likely  that  certain  of  the  provisions  of  a  City 
Planning  Code  will  be  attacked,  your  Committee  deems  it  advisable 
to  present  not  one  act  but  several  acts  which,  as  time  goes  by,  may 
be  brought  together.  If  an  attempt  were  made  now  to  combine  all 
the  provisions  that  appear  desirable  in  one  act,  it  may  well  be  that 
one  set  of  its  provisions  would  be  held  unconstitutional,  and  that, 
therefore,  the  entire  code  might  be  held  unconstitutional,  although 
other  provisions  were  well  within  the  power  of  the  law-making 
bodies.  The  question  in  such  cases  is  whether  the  unconstitutionality 

190 


APPENDIX 

of  the  set  of  provisions  so  affect  the  whole  act  that  its  remaining 
provisions  cannot  be  held  valid  apart  from  them.  For  instance,  the 
]'o\ver  of  excess  condemnation  and  the  power  of  preliminary  plat- 
ting in  undeveloped  sections,  so  as  to  prevent  the  erection  of  build- 
ings within  the  limits  of  the  streets  platted,  are  each  of  them  subject 
to  objections  regarded  a  generation  ago  as  fatal.  Why  then  make 
the  constitutionality  of  one  dependent  more  or  less  upon  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  other  .'  Why  not  let  each  stand  or  fall  on  its 
own  merits?  Your  Committee  deems  it  only  reasonable  that  each 
provision  should  be  construed  by  itself,  confident  though  they  are 
that  each  will  be  generally  upheld.  As  time  goes  on,  the  advantage 
of  codifying  these  various  acts  into  one  uniform  city  planning  act 
will  become  more  and  more  obvious. 


EXCESS  CONDEMNATION 

City  planning  necessarily  has  to  do  with  transportation  in  the 
broadest  sense.  Transportation  covers  not  only  vehicular  methods 
of  transportation  from  one  point  to  another  by  means  of  steam 
railroads  or  street  transit  systems  on  the  surface,  above,  or  below 
ground,  but  the  method  of  transportation  by  the  streets  themselves. 
The  space  occupied  by  streets  includes  from  about  twenty-two  per 
cent  to  fifty  per  cent  of  the  area  of  the  developed  portions  of  cities. 
Your  Committee  presents  herewith  the  legal  aspect  of  street  recon- 
struction and  of  street  platting. 

Street  reconstruction  chiefly  concerns  the  opening  of  new  streets 
and  the  widening  of  old  ones  in  the  central  or  developed  portions  of 
cities,  and  street  platting  chiefly  has  to  do  with  the  location  of 
streets  in  undeveloped  areas.  While  in  individual  cases  recon- 
struction may  possibly  be  done  altogether  at  the  expense  of  the 
taxpayers,  general  reconstruction,  such  as  we  have  been  familiar 
with  for  years  abroad  and  such  as  will  continue  necessarily  through 
all  time  in  every  city,  can  only  be  undertaken  effectively  if  the  city 
may  condemn  more  land  than  it  wants  in  order  to  resell  with  proper 
restrictions.  It  is  practically  essential  that  the  power  of  excess 
condemnation  shall  sooner  or  later  be  upheld,  if  American  cities  are 
to  be  rebuilt  as  European  cities  are  being  I'ebuilt. 

Excess  condemnation  was  considered  by  the  Conference  on  City 
Planning  at  each  of  its  former  sessions  and  a  brief  reference  here 
will,  therefore,  suffice.  We  would  refer  to  constitutional  changes 
proposed  in  Massachusetts  and  Xew  York  expressly  authorizing  such 
acts  of  excess  condemnation.  Whether  this  is  an  advisable  method 
is  at  least  questionable.  While  the  constitutional  change  may  be 
effective  in  the  States  concerned,  it  will  not  avoid  a  difficulty  pos- 
sibly presented  by  the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  con- 
stitutions of  the  States  providing  for  excess  condemnation  will  have 
to  be  upheld  as  not  unconstitutional  under  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States.  For  my  own  part,  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  likely 
that  a  decision  by  a  State  court  upholding  excess  condemnation 

191 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT    OF    STREETS 

within  reasonable  limits  would  in  turn  be  upheld  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  Up  to  the  present  time  there  has  been 
no  case  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  nation  in  which  a  decision 
of  a  State  court  holding  that  a  condemnation  is  for  a  public  use 
has  been  reversed.  If,  instead  of  a  decision  of  a  court  of  competent 
jurisdiction,  a  constitutional  declaration  passed  by  the  people  at  the 
polls  is  presented  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  I 
fear  an  entirely  different  attitude  will  be  found  upon  the  part  of 
that  distinguished  tribunal. 

STREET   PLATTING 

The  other  main  problem  with  regard  to  the  street  system  con- 
cerns chiefly  the  platting  of  streets  in  undeveloped  areas.  Here  it 
is  a  pleasure  to  a  loyal  son  of  Pennsylvania  to  be  able  to  say  that 
his  mother  State  points  the  way;  for,  in  Pennsylvania,  we  have  an 
act  which  provides  that  the  engineering  authorities  may  plat  streets 
and  that  when  the  streets  are  so  platted  no  building  shall  be  erected 
within  the  limits  thereof  or,  if  erected  within  such  limits,  no  damages 
shall  be  paid  the  owner  when  the  street  is  formally  opened.  By 
"opening"  is  meant  the  acquisition  of  the  public  right  of  way.  It 
has  been  decided  in  other  States  that  such  acts  are  unconstitutional 
because  they  deprive  the  owner  of  an  important  use  of  his  property 
during  the  period  between  platting  and  opening,  without  compen- 
sation. This  act  has  been  upheld  in  Pennsylvania  and  it  is  at  least 
questionable  whether  it  would  not  now  be  upheld  generally  through- 
out the  country  as  a  reasonable  exercise  of  the  police  power.  We 
believe,  however,  that  it  is  altogether  unnecessary  to  rely  upon  the 
police  power,  because  all  rights  of  owners  can  readily  be  provided 
for  through  compensation  by  an  act  slightly  varying  from  that  of 
Pennsylvania. 

The  main  outline  of  such  an  act,  as  drafted  by  the  Committee,  is 
as  follows,  the  latter  parts  varying  from  the  Pennsylvania  act:  The 
act  provides  that  the  proper  authority  shall  have  the  power  to  plat 
streets  in  undeveloped  areas,  that  thereafter  no  building  shall  be 
erected  by  the  owner  within  the  limits  of  such  streets,  or,  if  erected, 
that  no  damages  shall  be  paid  the  owner  when  the  formal  right  of 
way  is  acquired  through  proceedings  of  eminent  domain.  The  plat- 
ting of  the  streets  does  not  give  nor  attempt  to  give  title  to  the  ri.nht 
of  way,  but  it  does  deprive  the  owner  of  the  use  of  the  ground 
within  the  right  of  way  for  building  purposes.  The  act  therefore 
authorizes  and  directs  that  the  owner  shall  be  compensated  for  the 
deprivation  of  the  use  of  his  property  to  this  extent :  when  the  street 
is  formally  opened,  he  is  to  receive  full  compensation,  not  only  for 
the  easement  then  acquired  by  the  city,  but,  in  addition,  for  this- 
deprivation  between  the  date  of  platting  and  the  date  of  opening. 
He  will,  therefore,  secure  compensation  for  every  element  of  his 
ownership.  Should  the  street  be  platted  and  thereafter  the  location 
of  the  proposed  street  be  changed,  the  act  provides  that  the  owner 

192 


APPENDIX 

•shall  then  have  the  right  to  secure  compensation  for  the  depi'ivation 
•of  the  use  of  his  property  within  the  platted  right  of  way  during 
the  time  between  the  original  platting  and  the  subsequent  removal 
from  the  plan.  By  this  method  he  will  secure  compensation  for  the 
right  of  which  he  has  been  deprived  for  that  length  of  time.  It 
will  be  observed  that  the  owner  has  no  immediate  right  of  action 
because  of  the  platting  of  the  street.  It  is  unnecessary  in  our  view 
of  the  law  that  he  should  have  any  immediate  right  to  such  com- 
pensation. Justice  Sharswood  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsyl- 
vania stated  that  when  property  is  taken  by  the  right  of  eminent 
domain  "the  obligation  of  compensation  is  not  immediate.  It  is 
required  only  that  provision  should  be  made  for  compensation  in  the 
future."  Hanimett  v.  Phil,  Ii5  Pa.  146  (1870). 

If  this  statement  by  one  of  the  greatest  judges  of  Pennsylvania 
should  not  be  regarded  as  law  by  other  States,  it  will  then  be  neces- 
sary in  such  States  to  provide  for  immediate  compensation  to  the 
owner  for  the  loss  of  the  use  of  his  property  to  this  extent.  But 
we  are  satisfied  that  generally  this  will  not  be  found  necessary, 
except  where  the  State  constitution  expressly  provides  for  compen- 
sation before  any  taking  at  all,  and  in  such  a  State  it  is  respectfully 
submitted  that  the  constitution  should  be  changed. 

Those  of  you  who  are  familiar  with  the  practical  working  of 
the  law  of  condemnation  will  not  fail  to  observe  that,  this  act  would 
create  a  new  element  of  damages  in  such  proceedings.  The  fact  of 
creating  this  additional  element  will  be  beneficial,  although  it  may 
slightly  increase  the  money  that  goes  out  of  the  city  treasury.  If 
the  Board  of  Surveyors  knows  that  should  it  plat  a  street  and  there- 
after find  it  advisable  to  change  its  location,  then  the  property  owner 
will  be  entitled  to  damages  for  his  inability  to  build  upon  the 'platted 
area  meanwhile,  the  Board  will  consider  its  action  carefully  before 
it  originally  plats  the  street.  This  is  an  advantage  because  the 
careful  study  will  far  more  than  compensate  for  the  slight  additional 
payment  to  the  owner. 

Closely  akin  to  this  matter  is  the  power  to  widen  streets  grad- 
ually by  providing  that,  as  houses  fronting  thereon  are  altered  they 
must  be  set  back  to  a  new  building  line.  For  instance,  the  widening 
of  Chestnut  Street  from  50  to  60  feet  has  been  proceeding  since 
1883,  and  3*011  may  see  four  buildings  between  Thirteenth  and  Broad 
Streets  on  the  old  line.  The  city  has  now  reached  the  point  where 
it  can  order  these  buildings,  that  remain,  back  to  the  new  line,  with- 
out overburdening  the  public  funds.  An  act  to  give  this  power 
generally  has  been  prepared. 


PLATTING  OF  PUBLIC  RESERVATIONS 

The  next  Act  of  Assembly  which  the  Committee  has  prepared  is 
that  concerning  the  platting  of  areas  in  undeveloped  sections  of  the 
city,  which  areas  are  intended  for  parks,  playgrounds  or  public 
buildings  of  various  kinds.  It  is  just  as*  important  to  systematic 

193 


THE    WIDTH    AND    ARRANGEMENT   OF    STREETS 

and  wise  city  planning  that  reservations  should  be  platted  as  sites 
for  future  parks,  playgrounds,  school-houses,  fire-houses,  libraries, 
etc.,  as  it  is  that  the  streets  should  be  located  in  advance.  But  the 
ground  should  be  reserved  generally,  instead  of  specifically,  so  that 
future  developments  may  determine  the  precise  use  to  be  made  of 
the  particular  area.  The  act  provides  for  the  platting  of  the  areas 
intended  for  such  purposes  and  also  provides  that  no  building  shall 
be  erected  on  such  areas,  by  the  individual  owner,  and  if  erected 
that  no  damages  shall  be  given  for  them.  The  same  provision  is 
inserted  providing  for  compensation  to  the  owner  for  the  loss  of 
the  use  of  his  property  for  building  purposes  between  the  date  of 
the  platting  and  the  date  of  actual  condemnation,  and,  likewise, 
there  is  the  same  provision  for  compensation  to  the  owner  should 
the  platted  location  be  changed. 

THE  DISTRICTING   OF   CITIES 

The  Act  of  Assembly  prepared  by  the  Committee  on  this  point 
follows  the  Boston  precedent.  It  concerns  the  restriction  of  build- 
ings in  outlying  areas  to  heights  that  shall  not  be  greater  than  the 
width  of  the  street  upon  which  they  front. 


INDEX 


Adams.  Thomas,  quoted.  34 

Addams.  Jane,  quoted.  27 

Aesthetic-  considerations.  1.  14, 
20.  41.  58,  65-66.  69.  89-80, 
1>7.  103,  104,  106.  107-109.  113, 
117,  142.  150,  152.  163,  167, 
171-172.  173-174.  186 

Air.  20.  43.  64.  75.  136.  337.  144. 
153.  168 

Aix-la-Chappelle,  159 

Alleys.  4C.  <><;-t>7.  74.  77-78.  134, 
137.  151  note 

Allotment  gardens.  140-141,  166 

Alvord.  John  W..  quoted.  111.112 

American  Civic  Association.  160 
note 

Ancient  cities.  18,  27.  161.  177 

Arcades.  7<i-77 

Arch  Street,  Phila..  73 

Architecture.  54.  55.  96.  113.  130, 
142-143.  163.  176.  1M 

Association  of  Municipal  Corpo- 
rations (Eng. ).  quoted.  t!4 

Athletic  grounds.  1  <;<;-!  (.7 

Avenues.  23.  97-98.  129.  154-1  .V,. 
168,  171 

Avenue  de  I'Ope'ra,  15 


B 


Baldwin.  William  11.,  quoted,  151 

note 

Baltimore.  82.  91.  120.  143  note 
Barker.  Henry  A.,  quoted.  157 
Bedford  Park.  36-37 
Belgian  cities,  50 
Berlin.  34  note,  53  note,  61,  119, 

135  note,  168 
Billboards,  2 


Birmingham,  152,  185 

Block,  15,  122-123,  152;  see  also 
Lot 

Bonn.  173 

Booth.  Charles,  quoted.  139,  151- 
152 

Boston.  51,  60,  62,  82,  91,  123.  135 
note 

Boulevards.  92.  97.  159,  174 

Bournville>  29.  139,  147,  164 

Bridle  path.  61,  168 

Broadway.  15.  19 

Brookline.  Mass..  26.  108 

Brooklyn,  62 

Bronx,  borough  of.  22 

Brunner,  Arnold  W..  quoted,  159- 
160 

Brussels,   Frontispiece,  162    note 

Buffalo,  X.  Y..  93 

Building  height,  69.  80,  82,  90, 
143.  195 

Building  line.  14.  74.  7.",.  76-78,86,. 
87,  141.  152 

Building  restrictions,  71.  72.  ^2. 
'.">.  143-144;  sec  also  Build- 
ing Height  and  Building  Line 

Buildings,  public.  2.  55.  71.  92.  93, 
155.  158.  174-176.  194-195 

Burns,  John,  quoted,  139 


Cadbury  Bros..  Ltd..  147 
Cambridge.  Mass..  123 
Champs-Elys£es.  61,  168 
Cheapside.  15.  19 
Chestnut  Street,  Phila..  73-74 
Chicago,  27,  93.  Ill,  135  note,  137 
Circumferential       streets      a  n  d 

parks,  see  Girdle 
City   and   Suburban   Homes   Co.r 

152 


IXDKX 


City  plan  commissions,  see  Com- 
missions 
City    planners     (American),    04, 

l.SO 

City  planning,  see  Town  planning 
Civic  center,  176,  186;    *rr  «/.vo 

Buildings,  public 
Civic  improvement.  I 
Clearance  of  slums,  38.  71,  185 
Cleveland-Cliffs  Iron  Co.,  147 
Coblentz.  173 
Coldspring,  N.  Y.,  147 
Cologne,  si 
Commissions  on  City  Plan,  72,  02, 

83 

Compensation,  see  Damages 
Condemnation,  see  Excess 
Connecticut,  legislation   in.    72 
Contour,  failure  to  follow,  S.  24. 

25-26.  100 
limitations    in    following,    102, 

106 
respect  for,  51,  64-65,  06,  101. 

102.  105,  127.  1.-J5 
Congestion.  24.  144-145 

official   committee  on,   in   New 

York.  80,  82,  02-03 
voluntary  committee  on,  in  New 

York,  quoted,  40,  80 
Cornell  Co..  147 
Cornes.  James,  quoted,  130 
n.urt; yards,  138.  143,  144,  153 
Crawford.        Andrew        Wright. 

quoted.  72.  85  note.  Appendix 
Curving  streets,  52,  103,  106-100, 

158,  174 

D 

Damages.  30  note,  74,  7.".   7s-70. 

90.  1!  13-104 

Dedication  of  streets.  70 
Dewsnup.  Prof.,  quoted,  136 
Districts,   10.  23,  26-27.   so ;    xee 

<il*<i   Industrial  Sections  and 

Zones 

Downing.  A.  J.,  quoted,  108 
Drainage.  101 
Dresden.  110,  168 
Dunfermline.  173  note 
I  n'isseldorf,  68,  80 

E 

Kaseinents.  76,  87 

Eberstadt,  Dr.,  quoted,  34,  53, 176 

Echota,  X.  Y.,  147 


Eliot.  Dr.  Charles  W..  quoted,  38, 

161  note 

Essen,  Ger.,  125,  147-140 
Excess   condemnation.    71-73,   02, 

191-183 
Expropriation,  88 


Factories.    87.    03.    136.    144-145; 

xf •('   <tlx<>    Industrial    Sections 
Ferry.  Charles  A.,  quoted.  74 
Fifth  Avenue.  15 
Firebreaks.  64 
Fleet  Street.  10 
Flexibility   of  plan,   85.   94.    179- 

isd.  isl 
Florence.  52 
Footpaths.  122-127.  166;  see  dlxn 

Sidewalks 

Forest  Hills  Gardens.  41.   1(56 
Frankfort.  (51.  ^2.  123.  K!s 

G 

Gardens,  36-37.  Ki4.  121.  132,  138- 
140.  147.  152.  167 

allotment.  140-141,  166 

back.  13S-140.  141 

casement  over.  22 

front.  20.  :!7.  70.  s»5 
Garden  cities.  41.   11!).   I'd 
Garden  suburlts.  20.  36.  110.    15" 
German  cities.   33-34.   5(».   61.  70, 
M_»-s2.  ^3.  S6-S9.  146.  151  note, 
171;    xcf  <il>«i  cities  by  name 
Gilbert,  Cass,  quoted.  165  note 
Girdle  streets.  170 
Gradients.  S6.  102,  106.  122 
Gurlitt.  Cornelius,  quoted.  64,  104 
Gutters.  113 
Gwinn,  Mich.,  147 

H 

Hamburg.  73.  1(57  note 
Hampstead    Garden    Suburb.    2!>. 

113.  110 
Hanover,  61 
Harborne.  141.  152  note 
Harmon.  William  E..  quoted.  160 
Hartford.  Conn..  72.  02 
Havana,  is 
Health,  36,  38 
Hegemann.  Dr..  quoted.  33 
Hellerau.  06 
Hetzendorf.  152 
Highways,  xee  Main  highways 
Hillside  streets,  101,  102,  106,  122 


196 


INDEX 


Horsfall,  T.  C.,  quoted,  86-89 

Homewood,  L.  I.,  152 

Houses  per  acre,   restriction  of, 

29,  30,  43-44.  90,  152 
Howard,  Ebenezer,  139 


Individuality  of  cities,  65,  186 
Industrial  sections,  80,  82,  93, 146, 
167,  180 


Jarratt,  J.  Ernest,  quoted,  111 


K 


Kainpffmeyer,    Bernard,    quoted, 

96 
Kane,  Francis  Fisher,  quoted,  74 

note 

Knibbs,  G.  H.,  quoted,  53 
Krupp  Colonies,  125,  147-149 


Manchester,  H.  V.,  quoted.  170 
Landowners.  87,  88-89,  90,  91,  150 
consideration  for,  1,  39,  43-44, 

50,  89,  182-183 
cities  as,  83,  84 ; 

see  also  Values 
Landscape  work.  130 
Leclaire,  111..  147 
Legislation,  14,  15,  72,  73-74,  77- 

79,  85,  86-93,  Appendix 
Leipzig.  61 

Letchworth  Garden  City,  145 
Lever  Bros..  Ltd..  147 
Lewis,  Nelson  P..  93.  104.  155 
Light,   20,   43,   75,   137,   144.   153, 

168 ;    see  also  Sunshine 
Liverpool,  15.  16 

Local  Government  Board  (Eng- 
land), 90 

London,  15,  27.  36.  49,  53  note, 
62  note,  129,  135  note,  145, 
173 

Los  Angeles,  18  note.  82,  93,  130 
Lot,  area  that  may  be  built  upon, 

80,  144 

importance  of  shallow,  15,  133- 

l.">4.  142.  144.  153 
planning.  9S-1)!> 

saleability.  98-99.  101.  102.  103 
size  of,  15,  74,  86,  96,  99,  132, 

139,  145,  147,  158,  179,  183 


M 


Madison,  Wis..  3  note,  105,  161 
Main  highways.  9-10,  12,  18,  42, 

48,  50-83,  136-138,  179 
connection      of,      with      minor 

streets,  3,  4,  98.  136,  151 
widths  of.  14,  15.  46,  52,  79,  147 
Manufacturing,  see  Industrial 
Margins.   114-il7.   127,   171-172 
Market  Place,  1(51 
Marsh,  Benjamin  C.,  quoted,  50, 

80 

Maryland,  legislation  in,  72 
Mawson,  Thomas  H.,  quoted,  02 

note.  66,  162-163.  173  note 
Medieval    cities,    18,    27,    46-47, 

161-162 

Menier,  Chocolat,  village,  147 
Michigan,  legislation  in,  91 
Minor  streets,   10-11.  28,  35,  41- 

43.  44,  48,  56,  78,  98,  179 
connection  of,  with  main  high- 
ways, 3,  4,  11,  56,  98,  99-100, 

104,  136,  138,  151 
widths  of,  14,  19,  46,  86,  111- 

113,  147 
Montreal,  15 
Munich,  80 


National     Conference     on     City 

Planning,     in     America,     85 

note.  Appendix 
Nelson,  N.  O.,  Manufacturing  Co., 

147 
Nettlefold.  J.   S.,  quoted,  16,  29, 

131,  185 

Newark,  N.  J..  93 
New  Haven,  Conn.,  74.  165  note 
New  York.  7  note.  15.  22-23,  34, 

56,  82,  92-93,  133.  135  note 
Niagara  Development  Co.,  147 
Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y.,  147 
Niven,    D.    Barclay,    quoted,    62 

note,  63 
Noise,  35.  58,  137,  145 

escape  from,  8,  9,  41,  127 
Nolen,  John,  quoted.  3,  105 
Northampton,  Mass.,  119 

O 

Ohio,  legislation  in.  72 
Olmsted.    F.    L..    quoted,    35,    78, 
159-160.  165  note 


197 


INDEX 


Open  spaces,  87,  104.  107.  129-130, 
136,  138,  158,  159-160.  161- 
l€3,  174,  185;  sec  also  Plaza 
and  Squares 

Orientation.  24.  102-103,.  135 

Outlook  Points,  159,  163 

Oxford.  52 

Oxford  St.,  15 


Paris.  15,  53,  61,  76,  135  note,  137, 

174  note 

Parkings.  114-117,  127.  171-172 
Parks.  92.  93,   138.   147.  155-161, 

166,    167,    170-171.    176.    194- 

195;        see      a/.s-o       Athletic- 
grounds.    Open    Spaces    and 

Playgrounds 
Parkways,    72.    92.   97.   154,   159, 

16.s.  170-171,  174.  17C) 
Pavement.  2.  23.  36,  43,  102,  111, 

113,  138  note 
Peabody,   Robert   S.,    quoted,  53 

note 
Pennsylvania,   legislation   in.    72, 

-  78 
Philadelphia,  25.  .15.  72  note.  73- 

74.  s5  note,  92.  129.  135  note 
Piccadilly,  15 
Pittsburgh.  78  note 
Place,  semi-private.  128-130 
Playgrounds.  23,  87,  93,  132.  137, 

138.   142.   144.   155,   158,   161, 

163-167.  194-195 
Plaza.  46,  55,  69,  1G2 ;    sec  also 

Squares 

Plymouth  Cordage  Go.,  147 
Plymouth.  Mass..  147 
Political  influence,  133 
Port  Sunlight,  141,  147.  150 
President's    Homes    Commission, 

quoted.  35.  134,  151  note 
Promenades,  61,  168,  170.  173 
Purdy,  Lawson,  quoted,  183 

Q 

Queen  Victoria  St.,  15 
Quiet.  8,  9.  41.  127 

R 

Radial  streets  and  parks,  51,  53- 

54.  62,  170 

Rapid  transit,  see  Transportation 
Real     Estate,     see    Values     and 

Landowners 


Rear   houses.   35.   134 :    see   also 

Building,  restriction  of.  and 

Houses 
Rear    tenements,    35;     see    also 

Building,  restriction  of 
Rents,     as     affected     by     minor 

streets,  11,  28-32,  39 

factory  rents,  145 
Rey.    A.    Augustin,    quoted,    135 

note 

Ringstrasse.  170 
Rixdorf.  152 

Roadway.  i_'±  i':'.  .n;.  58-<  1 
Rochester,    X.    Y..   110.   115.   15it. 

172 

Rome.  5i! 
Royal     Commission    on    London 

Traffic,  quoted.  49.  61 
Rue  de  Rivoli.  76 
Ruskiu,  quoted.  150 


S 


Sage  Foundation.  41 

Salem,  Mass..  C3 

School  sites.  87.  105;  158.  175 

St-ager,  Prof.  Henry  R.,  quoted, 

7  note 

Seattle.  Wash..  93 
Service  roads.  126 
Sewerage.  29.  92,  93,  101,  102,  138 

note.  176 

Shurtleff.   Arthur  A.,  quoted.   14 
Sidewalks.  22.  23,  00,  61.  79,  114- 

122,  127,  135 

Sixteenth  St..  Washington.  77 
Slum,  clearance  of.  38,  71,   1^5; 

see  also  Tenements 
Smoke.  145.  146 
Southport,  40.  173  note 
Speculative  values  in  land,  43.  7<>, 

79 

Springfield.  Mass..  52  note 
Squares.  46.  69.  88,  92,  119,  129- 

130.  161-163 

St.  Louis.  91.  93,  128-129 
Standardization.  8.  13-27 
Streets.   22.    154-1.15.   I7s-17'.> 
cost  of,  3.  29,  38.  41-4.'!.  V9.  101- 

103.  135 
curving,  52,   103,   106-109,   158, 

174 

dedication  of,  70 
girdle,  170 

grades  in.  86.  102.  106 
hillside.   67.   101,   102,   106,   158 


198 


Streets.  Importance  of,  3,  178-179 
length  of.  54.  M 
parked,   usefulness  of,  154-155, 

108,  171-17:: 
percentage  of  city  area  in.  3, 

is,  K;U 

radial,  51,  53-54,  62,  170 
widening,  71,  73-79,  185,  194 
width  excuses,  20 

see   o/.so   Minor   Streets  and 
Main  Highways 
Street   railroads,   49,   56-58 ;    see 

<il*o  Transportation 
Stiiltlien.  Dr..  quoted.  106 
Subdivision,  17,  91,  160 
extent  of  movement,  6 
reason  for.  6,  7 
Suburban  control.  91.  193-194 
Sunshine.    24.    86.    102-103,    135; 

.s-rr  ulxo  Light 
Swedish  cities.  34,  50 
Swiss  cities,  50 

T 

Taxation,  31,  76,  133 
Tenements.  .",4.  81   note,  133,  134, 

142-145,  168.  171 
Thames  Embankment,  173 
Thompson,  W..  quoted,  29 
Toronto.  11(5,  119 
Town  planning,  benefits  of,  1,  2, 

177.  1ST -isr, 
demand  for.  2 
features  of.  3,  94 
French,  K',2 
German.  32.  1G2 
rr/-.v//.s-  site  planning.  98 
Town  planning  act,  English,  17, 

32,  39  note,  50,  89-90,  139 
Town  Planning  Conference,  33-34 
Traffic.  1.  2.  18-19.  22,  35,  44,  46, 

53-64.  135.  1C2 
Tram,  sec  Street  Railroads 
Transportation.  18.  45.  50.  54,  55, 
56,  80,  93,  134,  136,  145,  180 


Transportation,    influence    of.    7, 

49.  144,  158;    .vrr  <//.•.•/>  Street 

Railroads 
Trees.   22,   61,   66,   103,   108,   115, 

117.   121,   147,   152.   lux,   170. 

171-172.  174 

Triggs,  Inigo,  quoted,  46 
Two-level  streets,  67-68,  100,  102 

U 

Fnter  den  Linden,  61,  168 
L'nwin,  Raymond,  quoted.  30,  55 
note,  98,  100,  111,  368 


Values,  real  estate,  1,  19,  39-44, 

89,  131,  160-161 
speculative,  43,  76,  79 
traffic.  19 

Vegetation,  20,  117,  127 
Veiller.    Lawrence,    quoted,    139, 

184-185 
Venice.  52 
Ventilation,  see  Air,  Light,  Wind, 

etc. 

Vienna.  61 
A'irginia.  Legislation  in,  72 

W 

Walnut  Street,  Phila..  73 
Washington,  D.  C.,  14.  15.  16,35, 

53,  77-78,  134,  135  note 
Washington,  State,  legislation  in, 

160 

Waterfront.  67-68,  173 
Weller.  C.  P.,  quoted.  134 
Widening  of  streets,  see  Streets 
Wiesbaden.  168 

Wilcox.  Dr.  Delos  F.,  quoted,  179 
Wind.  102,  103 
Wisconsin,  legislation  in,  91 
Wollastou,  Mass.,  26 

Z 

Zones,  building,  79-82,  131 


199 


THE  IMPROVEMENT 

OF 

TOWNS    AND    CITIES 

BY 

CHARLES  MULFORD  ROBINSON 


Third  Revised  Edition 

12mo.     (By  mail,  $1.35.}    Net,  $1.25 


"AX    extraordinarily  good  book.      The   breadth    of    the 
f\    author's  observations  is  even  more  remarkable  than  the 
breadth  of  his   reading,  and  the  strength  of  his  com- 
mon sense  quite  as  remarkable  as  the  strength  of  his  artistic 
sense." — The  Outiook. 

"Mr.  Robinson's  book,  if  it  had  nothing  but  its  timeliness 
to  commend  it,  would  be  welcome.  But  it  has  more  than 
mere  timeliness.  It  shows  great  care  in  preparation,  and 
gives  the  best  general  statement  of  civic  aesthetics'  many  prob- 
lems, and  of  the  known  ways  of  solving  them." — The  Nation. 

"Mr.  Robinson  will  be  recognized  all  the  more  readily  as 
the  prophet  of  the  movement  for  restoring  grace  and  sweet- 
ness to  outdoor  city  life  because  he  has  kept  himself  within  the 
most  rigid  limits  of  the  attainable." — The  Westminster  Gazette. 

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romance  to  a  great  many  readers.  It  should  become  a  volume 
indispensable  to  all  who  have  a  head  or  a  heart  interest  in 
the  subjects  of  which  it  treats.  Its  pages  teem  with  refer- 
ences to  what  has  been  done,  at  home  and  abroad. 
The  more  one  reads  the  more  is  one  surprised  that  so  small 
a  book  can  carrv  so  much." — The  World. 


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MODERN  CIVIC  ART 


OR 


THE  CITY  MADE  BEAUTIFUL 

By  CHARLES  MULFORD  ROBINSON 

AUTHOR  OF  "IMPROVEMENT  OF  TOWNS  AND  CITIES,"  ETC'. 


Octavo.       Third    Revised    Edition.      With    30    Full-page 
Illustrations. 

Net  $3.00    .(By  Mail.  * 


«T^ROBABLY    no  American  has  thought  more  on  the  subject  of 
J_      the  beautifying  of  cities,  or  thought  to  better  effect,  tlian  has 
Charles  Mulford  Robinson.     His  first  book,   '  The  Improvement 
of  Towns  and  Cities,'  gave   the   greatest   impetus  to  the  now  wide- 
spread movement  for  civic  beauty  that  it  has  yet   received    in    this 
country.     His  occasional  articles  since  have    contributed    vastly   to 
information,    delight,    and   enthusiasm    on    the   part    of   those    who 
have  learned  that  the  places  where  men  live  are  worthy  of  love  and 
care." — Philadelphia  Ledger, 

"It  is  difficult  to  name  any  movement  for  the  bettering  of  municipal 
conditions  that  is  of  greater  importance,  or  shows  more  likelihood  of 
success,  than  that  of  which  Mr.  Charles  Mulford  Robinson's  new 
book,  'Modern  Civic  Art,'  is  the  latest  exponent.  There  is  hardly  a 
matter  concerning  the  adornment  of  the  city,  the  convenience  and 
comfort  of  the  people  as  a  whole,  that  is  not  discussed.  To  give  force 
to  suggestions  concrete  examples  are  given,  for,  luckily,  there  is 
scarcely  a  possible  improvement  of  our  cities  that  cannot  be  seen  in 
some  one  city.  The  book  is  a  strong  plea. " — Chicago  Tribune. 

"Civic  art  is  one  of  the  sanest  and  most  sensible  practical  move- 
ments of  this  day,  and  is  just  now  meeting  with  a  consideration  which 
signifies  a  great  triumphant  movement  for  the  beauty  and  comfort  of 
our  municipalities.  .  .  .  At  a  time  when  real  beginnings  are  being 
made,  and  a  desire  is  becoming  general  and  emphatic  to  carry  this 
city  beautifying  forward,  the  splendid  book  by  Mr  Robinson  conies 
as  especially  welcome  and  appropriate.  It  is  a  most  complete  and 
thorough  work.  "We  should  almost  say  that  every  patriotic  citizen 
should  liave  this  beautiful  and  helpful  book  in  his  library." — St.  Paul 

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THE  CALL  OF  THE  CITY 


CHARLES  MULFORD  ROBINSON 

A  DOZEN   short  and  graceful  essays,  picturing  the  city's 
charm.     Incidentally  there  is   revealed    the   city's    own 
hold  upon  the  author — a  facination  which   many   feel, 
and  a  call  which  the  world  has  heard  and  obeyed  since  civi- 
lization began.     The  following  are  subject  titles  of  the  essays: 
The  Call  of  the  City,  The  City's  Beauty,  Its  Human  Interest, 
The  City's   Fellowship,  The  City's  Comforts,  The    Charm  of 
the  Past,   Opportunities,  Hope  for  Cities,  When  Phyllis  is  in 
Town,  Holidays,  Entertainment,  The  City  Sleeps. 

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"  The  easy  chat  of  a  happy  city-dweller — a  keen-eyed,  warm-hearted 

observer." — Cambridge  (Mass.)  Chronicle. 

"An  inspiring  book.  Mr.  Robinson  is  one  who  knows  to  the  core 
more  than  one  great  metropolis  and  who  feels  in  his  blood  the  mighty 
throb  and  enthusiasm  of  fellowship  and  of  united  struggle  for  a 
common  end.  To  him  the  city  presents  equal  fascination  with  the 
country,  and  he  writes  with  love-tipped  pen." — Baltimore  Sun. 

"A  prose  poem." — Saturday  Review,  New-  York  Times. 

"  This  little  volume  of  charmingly  written  essays  is  somewhat  out 
of  the  beaten  path.  Economic  and  political  studies  of  the  city  are 
numerous  in  these  days:  one  is  apt  to  think  that  municipal  life  means 
statistics  and  corruption.  But  Mr.  Robinson  sees  a  deeper  and  more 
interesting  meaning  in  the  city,  and  he  has  set  forth  his  observations 
and  experiences  with  strong  faith  and  broad  sympathy.  ...  In 
his  prose  one  feels  the  true  heartbeat  of  the  city — of  the  life  which 
fascinates  and,  if  rightly  lived,  ennobles  those  who  come  in  contact 
with  it.  ...  The  tone  of  human  sympathy,  the  air  of  quiet 
reflection,  the  beat  of  a  rhythmic  prose,  warm  with  life — these  quali- 
ties will  make  the  book  welcome  to  readers  looking  for  something 
fresh  and  delightful  in  the  criticisms  of  life." — Philadelphia  Book 
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